


Days That Last Forever

by Catch358



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Disney, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-11-24
Packaged: 2018-12-05 13:49:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 80,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11579328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catch358/pseuds/Catch358
Summary: Xion fell back on her bed, smiling, something she never recalled herself ever doing up until now. 'I can get used to days like this, I hope this lasts...forever.' - This is the story of Kingdom hearts 358/2 days told from Xion's point of view, filled with heartbreak, smiles, and as always, sea salt ice cream.





	1. Existence

**Author's Note:**

> A lot of new content is added to bring Xion's story to life. I made this story simply so I could appreciate Xion more because I didn't in the game, so as long as you love Kingdom Hearts and Xion, you'll love this too, or at least you'll come to appreciate Xion if you hadn't already

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OoO=short cut
> 
> XxXX=Long cut
> 
> 'Xion'=thoughts
> 
> Xion=narration
> 
> RTC= Return to Castle (Nobody's hideout)
> 
> CO=Castle Oblivion

 

* * *

_Who am I?_

_I know there's an answer out there, somewhere, but when I try to think about it, the memory fades away…_

**Day 8**

Xion stood in the center of a large, white room. Circling around her were thirteen chairs each with varying heights that towered above her. Looking back, she realized this was both her oldest and fondest memory because that was the day when she met him, when she met Roxas.

A deep voice drowned the room of all the conversations that went by her, "Today is a momentous occasion, for I am pleased to announce a new comrade has been chosen to wear the black coat," Xemnas said.

All the eyes of the Organization XIII members were now intently focused on her, but Xion only looked at one member, a boy with blonde, windswept hair and deep, blue eyes. His face was soft and round, and when their eyes met, Xion smiled at him.

 _'That boy…'_ Xion thought to herself. ' _He looks so familiar…'_

XxXX

**Day 9**

Xion laid on her bed, staring at the whitewashed ceiling, her eyes rested on the walls straight across from her which was noticeably bare except for a small shelf of books with nothing inside them. Everything from the pages within the books to the smooth walls that enclosed her was bathed in white, making her room feel much bigger than it actually was.

_'There's never anything to do around here, wish I could actually go missions like the other guys…'_

She felt her eyelids grow heavy as she listened to the rhythmic strumming of some type of instrument playing in the other room. She tried to fight off the urge to go to sleep, after all, it just be a day wasted, a day of sleeping and doing what she was told didn't interest her so much.

 _'Well, if no one's gonna give me anything to do guess I'll just give myself something to do.'_ Xion hopped off her bed and onto her feet. Quietly, she opened then closed the door and ventured down the long, white hallway. After a while of walking in silence, she could hear a conversation growing louder and louder with each progressing step she took.

"...I still don't understand what the point was of inviting another brat into the organization." A woman's voice.

"Tch, hell if I know," Now a man's voice. "But if I don't know, you really must not know, it's not like boss man speaks loud enough for the guys on the bottom to hear."

A different man spoke, his stern, tempered voice a clear contrast to the other's more rough, and seasoned voice. "Rank has nothing to with status, it's simply the order of which we entered the organization, how many times must I tell you of this."

"Right, right number 7."

A new voice interjected, one she'd come to favor. "We've just been getting new members left and right, anyone wanna place bets on when 15 will show up?"

"Hopefully it'll be someone semi-competent, like yours truly, otherwise the Organization's in deep shit if our only trump card is a dumb kid."

"You? Competement? Hate for him to be as good as someone who's number 12 in the organization."

"You—urgh! Will you shut up about your rank already?!"

"As if."

As the other organization members were chatting away, Xion quietly slipped through the door, completely undetected by everyone. Inside, the room was dipped in a coating of light gray with only a few pieces of white furniture, a refreshing break from the milky white she was used to seeing.

She made her way to a corner where only one organization member stood reading a book and she eased onto the chair. _'Everyone here feels so...distant…to me at least.'_

The door opened up, emitting a large creaking noise that got the attention of both Xion and Zexion, though both of them watched the tall man with unruly, pink hair and an utterly emotionless yet pretty face walk in, Zexion soon lost interest and returned to his book while Xion intently studied him. _'I remember that guy from yesterday, and how he...looked at me as if I wasn't even there.'_ She felt herself sink down in the chair, only half-listening to what the other members were conversing.

"Am I assigned to blade wielder today, Saïx?" Marluxia asked in such a dulled down, monotone voice it annoyed the other members.

' _Why is he asking me this? I told him this information numerous times, was he not listening?'_ "Correct. You are to show him what it means to be a Keyblade wielder."

Marluxia looked at Saïx blanker than usual so he elaborated a bit more. _'He truly never listens to me.'_ "Just tell him why slaying the heartless is so important for the Organization, you can do that much, it's the most basic of assignments."

"Understood." Marluxia made his way to the couch by the window where he would wait for Roxas to appear.

Saïx's face, just for a moment, flickered with irritation. _'That man, how dare he be so difficult, he makes me remember how it feels to be so angry at such an insolent person.'_

Larxene approached Saïx after eavesdropping on their conversation. "You made it sound like we're all supposed to teach that brat the ropes of the Organization. I figured only one or two would have to."

"Nearly every organization member will teach Roxas, including you."

"Tch, does that include the new one too?"

"No. That one is different."

The door swung open once again, and once again Xion looked back, it was him; Roxas. He looked like he had a lot on his mind, but he was definitely searching for someone. Xion sat down before Roxas could notice her, but it was too late because she could hear his clunky boots approaching her.

Suddenly, Roxas was in her face, he was smiling and for some reason, so was she. "Hey, Xion, I'm Roxas!"

' _He's talking to me.'_ "..."

"I don't really understand this place either, but we'll be working together in the future, right—"

"Roxas."

Roxas perked his head up, he turned to Saïx, despite his seemingly calm tone, he had a tempered expression and his eyes were narrowed, signaling for Roxas to return to him. Immediately.

"We'll talk later," Then he left. She stared his back slowly grow smaller and smaller while she sat in the chair, watching him leave as if there was a barrier forcing them apart. He exchanged a few short handed conversation with Marluxia and Saïx, then finally walked back out the door.

 _'I wonder where they're going?'_ Xion felt herself move out of the seat and walk towards the door too, it was like an automatic response. _'I guess I'll find out…'_

"Where are you going?" Saïx asked coldly.

"Back to my room." She said without looking at him.

"Good."

 _'Well, it is the truth, I am going back to my room...just not for long.'_ As she made her way down the hall, back to her room, she heard a voice call it to her.

"Hey, Xion, right?"

She felt...irresponsible for not knowing his name in return, after all he knew hers, but he didn't seemed to be too bothered by it because he continued anyways.

"Name's Demyx, I live next door to you," He said in a relaxed tone, completely different than the venom she was used to the hearing from the other members. Aside from his voice, Demyx was young looking and had a pretty face with bright blue eyes and dark blonde hair styled in a mullet.

"I've heard a lot about the Roxas guy, but when I ask about you, the conversation goes totally no where. Are you hiding something?"

Xion shook her head.

"Huh? Oh, you don't talk either? Guess I can't ask you—"

"Shouldn't you be out on patrol today?" Another man said.

Demyx snorted. "Me? Out on patrol? Man Axel, what world do you live on?"

"Typical. Well, now I see why boss wants to turn you into a dusk."

"W-wait...he...said that?"

"Yeah, I just passed him and Saïx in the hallway and heard them talking specifically about how much better your work ethic would be if you were a...disposable dusk."

Axel finally allowed himself to grin while watching Demyx quickly run away in a rush to get to his position. "Really though, I'm not sure why Xemnas doesn't consider the possibility of turning that idiot into a dusk, he certainly would work more," He said, then turned to Xion. "Don't you think?"

"..."

"Hm well, I'm Axel, alright, got it memorized?"

Xion nodded. _'Axel…'_ She thought to herself. His fiery red and stylized into slick back spikes, contrasted the calm, mysterious person Xion perceived him to be. He was different in a way she couldn't describe and although it was her first time meeting him, she was certain it wouldn't be the last.

OoO

Because of Demyx, Xion was back in her room, back in her bed, and back to staring at the white ceiling, waiting for the next day to arrive. She lost track of Roxas and Marluxia, it was like they vanished into thin air.

XxXX

**Day 23**

Day after day, Xion would wait for Roxas in the Gray room, he would leave with a different Organization member and that would be the last she'd see of him until the next day. Days soon melded into weeks of this same routine until she simply gave up and stayed in her room. Usually she would take a nap or practice casting magic, but today would be a different day, starting with the unprecedented knock on her door.

*knock

*knock

The door swung open, and there she was welcomed to the looming figure of Saïx standing in the doorway. "You will be starting your first mission today, report to the Gray room at once."

 _'I'm going on a mission today, that sounds pretty exciting. With who I wonder?'_ The thought of finally being able to leave the castle or even better, find out wherever Roxas was going everyday, clouded her mind. She went ahead of Saïx and made her way to the Gray room.

 _'Hm, the usual members aren't here today...only Demyx, and a couple other organization members…'_ Xion took her seat in the lone corner where Zexion used to stand around, but he too was gone.

"I'm so happy that witch decided to go to CO," Demyx said, stopping briefly to tune his beloved Sitar. "'Won't have to be seeing her anytime soon,"

Luxord shuffled a hand of his own personal playing card. "Yes, but Vexen, Zexion, and Marluxia have also gone to CO, and they were excellent at poker," He said.

Xigbar rolled his eye. "Wow, the two know-it-all's and the one who looks like he wants to die are the best ones at poker, what a surprise." He sarcastically remarked.

"Precisely, I suppose I'll just play solitaire from now on."

Demyx turned to Luxord. "Solitaire, that sounds awesome, I'm always up for a game!"

Xigbar chuckled while Luxord shook his head.

"What—hey what's so funny?!"

The laughter was soon broken by the sudden opening of the front door, they looked back to see who had entered.

"It's just Roxas," Luxord said.

Xigbar glanced over at the blonde boy. "Roxas, huh? Weird, he's never this early."

Xion let herself off the chair and timidly approached Roxas. 'Is he my partner?'

When Roxas noticed Xion inching towards him, he smiled warmly at her, his eyes beckoning for her to come closer. "Hey Xion!" He greeted.

 _'I want to say something to him, but...'_ Xion stared at Roxas. _'I can't.'_

Roxas thought for a moment. "Oh that's right, I'm going to be your partner for a while and today, we'll be going on a mission together."

_'Going on a mission together? With him...'_

"This is my first time leading a mission so sorry in advance if I sound like I don't know what I'm doing," He said sheepishly.

Xion silently nodded and she watched his eyes trace back to the floor.

He egged her on more. "Well, let's go, ready?"

She replied with more silence and more nodding, Roxas sighed and manifested a dark portal. _'Wow, that was my first time doing that and it already feels so natural to me,'_ He went inside the overflowing darkness with Xion following behind.

OoO

The two entered Twilight Town, a small town forever set in neverending twilight, as the sun was stuck in between midday and midnight, the sky always shone a beautiful, creamy orange that gave the entire town a warm glow.

Xion was star struck by the Twilight Town, she was so used to seeing the colorless world of the Nobodies, finally she could see the world as it was; full of color and light.

"This must be your first time here, I was pretty amazed too when I first saw Twilight Town," Roxas said, he extended his arm and a keyblade came into his hand. "According to the intel, all we have to do is collect hearts by defeating some heartless 'round town, pretty easy mission if you ask me."

 _'I wonder what heartless are anyways...I guess I'll find out soon enough.'_ Xion thought.

Roxas perched down on the building ledge and scanned the area for any heartless. "There." He stood up, then ran down the building.

Xion quickly trailed behind Roxas, while they were making their way down the building, a cut of shadow straying off on the side of the building formed into several heartless.

Roxas jumped over the horde of heartless, but Xion momentarily stopped. _'Those are what heartless are, well, time to put my practice into use.'_ She casted a weak blizzard spell at the heartless and they froze on the spot, Roxas used this chance to throw his keyblade at the frozen heartless and it shattered them upon collision.

"—ah, that was great, Xion!"

They continued down the building only for more heartless to be waiting for them at the bottom. Xion jumped off the building as she was nearing the bottom and casted a thunder spell on the animate shadows, stunning them.

Roxas followed and threw his keyblade, full force, down at the heartless. The impact once the keyblade made contact with the ground emitted a large shockwave that destroyed all the heartless.

"There's still more we have to take care of!" Roxas called out, he landed on the now debris covered ground and picked his keyblade up. "After we deal with them, that should be it."

Roxas took the lead and dashed past several several winding alleyways, Xion followed him effortlessly despite how fast he was moving. As he was slowing down, Xion did too, and they waited behind the back of a small store. "Hold on," Roxas muttered, he motioned to the mobs of people gathered around a large arena mat in the center plaza.

While Roxas intently studied at all the people, Xion gawked at them. _'More nobodies...no, they must be real people, they don't look any different from us.'_

"What're they doing…" Roxas said to himself. On the arena, there were two boys facing each other on opposite side, on the announcer's call, they started whacking each other with bats.

The boy with black hair had a fighting style in particular that peaked Roxas' intrest. He was aggresive and absolutely ruthless when his opponent made one slip up, when the boy realized Roxas was looking at him, he gave Roxas a piercing gaze that made him jump back. "What's with that guy..." He muttered.

"Hey you guys!" Someone yelled.

Roxas and Xion looked at each other.

Abruptly, a young man with blonde hair, wearing the widest smile any of them have ever seen before walked up to them. "You guys ready to struggle?"

Roxas blankly stared at the young man. "Ready to what?"

"I get it, you guys must be new, that explains the weird get up. See, in Twilight Town, every year we have this big tournament called 'STRUGGLE', right now we're into round 1, whoever wins, advances to round 2 and gets a complimentary ice cream." He explained. "The rules are simple, just beat your opponents to the ground and collect the most orbs."

 _'I guess it wouldn't hurt, we have time to spare.'_ "Uh...sure, sign us up."

The young man took both of them by the hand and dragged them to the sign up station. "Luckily you guys came just in time, sign ups are due in today!"

Roxas and Xion both signed up and took their seats in the stands next to two people around their age by the names of Rai and Fuu. "Are you guys competing too?" Roxas asked.

"Nope." Fuu said, she pulled a strand of her loose hair away from her vibrant red eyes and tucked it away behind her ear. Roxas and Xion both knew there was something more to her than she let on.

"We're just here to support Seifer y'know!" Rai proclaimed as he thumped his huge chest. "Hope that's why you guys are here too, 'cause there ain't no way you wimps stand a chance to him, y'know."

"Seifer rules." Fuu added.

"He's so gonna wipe the floor with you, y'know!"

"You're dead."

"Am not!" Roxas argued.

As Roxas was going back and forth with Fuu and Rai, Xion focused on the boy with black hair who gave Roxas such a cunning look. he was sitting on the opposite side away from them and had such a malicious facial expression Xion couldn't even put into words. _'That person is so creepy, there's something off about him.'_ Xion thought to herself.

Already, it was time for Roxas' match, he stood up from the bench and faced Rai and Fuu who were both sneering at him. "We're gonna win and get that ice cream, right Xion?!"

"..." Xion squeezed her hand, unsure of how she should feel about this. 'I just hope Roxas knows what he's gotten us into.' She gazed at Roxas' back, moving from the stands into the arena where he was handed a pouch of orbs and a comically large bat.

"Up on the stage we have two newcomers, both new to Twilight Town at least," Announced the same young man that entered Roxas and Xion earlier. He gestured to Roxas then pulled out a sheet of paper. "On this corner with the blue bat, we have...Roxas!"

Roxas looked down at the ground, visibly uncomfortable from all the eyes that were glued to him. It must of been the ominous black coat he was wearing that drew so much attention since it deeply contrasted with all the bright and colorful outfits all the townsfolk were wearing.

"...and on this corner with the red bat we have..." The announcer studied the paper. "An unnamed participant, so, are you guys ready?!"

Xion squeezed her hand harder. _'That boy...I hope Roxas will be ok.'_

Both of them nodded, making it the announcer's cue to step off the stage.

"LET'S STRUGGLE!"

The two clashed with each other, they appeared to be equally matched, or that's how Xion viewed it anyways. Fuu and Rai on the other hand were doubtful Roxas would come out on top.

"Do any of y'all notice something off about the Roxas guy's opponent, y'know?" Rai asked.

 _'Now that he mentions it,'_ Xion studied his opponent's aggressive movements. 'There's something weird about the way he moves, it's like he's aiming to kill Roxas, just like how he was earlier.'

Roxas was switching to the defensive while his opponent came in closer and closer. 'I have to do something, otherwise I'll be losing more than just the game!' Roxas quickly moved behind his opponent and whacked the bat on his back. He expected for there to be a few orbs dropping, but instead he melted into the arena mat.

"Wh-what?"

"Could the unnamed participant somehow run away?" The announcer said, just as he finished his sentence, the arena shook violently.

Once the shaking stopped, a giant arm shot up from the center of the arena, next there was another arm, then a head, a torso and finally its legs. Towering over Roxas was a gigantic heartless with an equally large claymore to match, it was pitch black in color and clad in dark red armor. Roxas discarded his bat and wielded his keyblade instead. 'This is a…' His eyes locked on the heartless insignia across its armour. 'Must be the last one we have to deal with!'

Xion stood up, she held out her hand, a fire spell brimming at her fingertips.

"Disqualified," Fuu said.

Rai elaborated. "Fuu's right, you help your partner out there and both of you'll be kicked to the curb, y'know."

 _'As if that matters to me,'_ Xion jumped onto the arena and right as she stepped foot on the mat, the armored heartless swung its claymore, smashing the arena in half and clearing out all but a few of the more danger seeking townsfolk. Roxas jumped out of the way and shielded himself from the flying debris with his keyblade while Xion simply dodged it.

"Xion, let's try and aim for its head, we can't do much from down here with all the armour it's wearing!" Roxas yelled.

 _'He makes it sound so easy...'_ Xion darted backwards as the claymore was coming her way. ' _Here I go…!'_ She jumped onto the claymore and shot her strongest spell, fira, at the heartless' face.

"Good idea, Xion!" While the heartless was impaired due from its head being on fire, Roxas whacked his keyblade on its head as much as he could, meanwhile, Xion traveled back down to what was left of the arena mat.

 _'I...really hope this works,'_ Xion shot a blizzard spell on the ground around the Heartless' feet, causing it to slip and fall backwards where it would soon hit the buildings behind it.

Though Roxas was able to jump away from the heartless, it lunged its arm at Xion's comparably tiny body and intended to either bring her down or squeeze her to death.

"XION!" Roxas yelled as he gunned towards the collapsing heartless.

Roxas made his way up to the heartless' shoulder and slashed off the wrist of the hand that was squeezing Xion. The hand snapped off and fell onto the arena mat, Roxas followed the hand down and caught Xion in his arms.

"Roxas..."

"Xion!" Roxas grinned. "You talked!" He landed harshly onto the mat and together they watched the giant animate shadow fall onto the buildings and get crushed under the decayed debris crumbling off the old buildings.

His name came so naturally to her, as if she was meant to say his name, all the words that were floating in her head, and Roxas was the one she wanted to, she had to, say the most. "Roxas…thank you." Xion murmured quietly to him.

"Of course. We're partners, after all, right?"

She nodded. "You're right."

"I think...it's time we RTC already."

Roxas opened up another dark portal and the two entered back into the white rooms of Organization's hideout. Roxas waved his arm. "See you tomorrow...Xion," He disappeared down the corridor and Xion did the same, returning to her room, welcomed and yet repulsed by the seeing the familiarity of her own room again.

She fell back on her bed, smiling, something she never recalled herself ever doing up until now. _'I can get used to days like this, I hope this lasts...forever.'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some events are out of order in accordance to the day it happens, hope it doesn't bother you all too much. As always, thanks for reading.


	2. An Afterthought

**Day 24**

Xion knocked on a door. _'I hope I'm not too late.'_

Thankfully, the door momentarily opened up. "...Roxas," Xion said softly, then handed him a sea salt ice cream. "You didn't get any yesterday, so I decided to go back to Twilight Town and pick some up for you."

He took the ice cream from her hand. "Thanks Xion...you...you didn't have to go through all that trouble for me."

"But I wanted to, besides," Xion whipped out a half eaten ice cream bar. "It taste good, it's salty, but still really sweet."

"Well if you insist," Roxas delved into the cold confection.

Xion smiled and finished hers up too. _'I've never felt this alive before, maybe because this is the first time I've ever eaten anything.'_

After Roxas finished his ice cream, he discarded the stick. "This reminds me of my friend Axel, before he left, he always used to get sea salt ice cream for the two of us to share. It was his favorite thing to eat, now it's my favorite too."

"Axel." Xion repeated, the name certainly sounded familiar to her.

Roxas tapped on his temple, then smirked. "Got it memorized?" He said in his best Axel impersonation.

"I remember him now, um, red, spiky hair, right?" Smiling again, she made several gestures with her hands to empathize the spikiness of his hair. Roxas nodded, his hair was certainly unforgettable.

"Roxas. Xion."

The two stopped walking and froze like statues at the mention of their names. They knew who it was without even having to turn around. Saïx.

Saïx walked up to them holding two ice cream sticks in hand. "The floors are not where you discard your filthy human trash, if I see these things on the floor again-" He paused to smash the ice cream sticks in his hand, then threw it in a dark portal. "I'll make sure your fate's will be that of those sticks."

Taking pleasure out of their faces slowly drained of color, he continued. "Anyway, you two have another mission in Twilight Town, it is to my knowledge you faced an irregular heartless based on the report I was given. That particular heartless is called an 'Orcus', expect to face more in the future, though that possibility is highly unlikely."

"An Orcus," Roxas said.

"Yes, they're among the strongest soldier class heartless, I was surprised the two of you could handle it on your own, perhaps I'll bump up the challenge of your missions in the future," Saïx handed Roxas a report detailing the mission entails, then walked away.

Roxas gave the paper to Xion after he reviewed it. "It's a Class D mission so it'll be pretty easy, basically one of us will have to write a mini report on the heartless since it's a new type of heartless for that specific area while the other fights them off," He said.

He rubbed the back of his head. "I'm...not so good with writing and stuff, so I think you should do the report."

"Uh, sure. Then I guess we should head to the Gray room and check out."

"Yeah,"

"Um, Roxas, what am I supposed to write down for the report, again, sorry I didn't really get what you mean by writing a mini report."

"That's easy, you come up with a name, then you write down the behavior and characteristics of the heartless, like if they tend to be in groups more or how big they are in comparison to us."

He thought for a moment. "Oh, Physical characteristics are important too. I always get stuck with writing the report and Saïx would always be super mad because I would just make up a random name, say what color it is, and how hard it is for my partner to fight, so maybe not do what I did, if that's any help."

"O-Ok, I think I got it!"

They entered the Gray room again, today it was just Luxord and Xigbar who were playing a game of cards, based on Xigbar's facial expression, he was losing, hard.

Just before Roxas opened another dark portal, he turned back at Xion. "-uh, you brought something to write with and some paper, right?"

A pen and paper manifested in Xion's hand.

"Whoa, how did you do that?!"

"With a lot of practice and free time."

"So does that mean you aren't gonna tell me..."

"We have a mission to do, besides it doesn't seem like you're the type who uses magic anyways."

Roxas sighed. "Good point...well, let's get going!"

OoO

Though they were back in Twilight Town, this time instead of being on top of a building, they were at a sandlot. Once they appeared from the darkness, all but a few people stayed around to see what was in store.

"Twilight Town is still so pretty."

"Yeah, it's always like—"

"HEY! You're the two creeps my lackey's were talking about!"

"Roxas, we should go!" Xion urged.

"Huh—"

The voice that was calling out to them belonged to a boy, a year or two older than them. He had a well toned body and a black knit cap covering his slicked back blonde hair, based on his appearance alone, he looked to be someone full of attitude.

Seifer glared at them. "And not only that, you ruined the Struggle Tournament, it'll take a few weeks for it to get up and runnin' again thanks to you idiots!"

"Hey! That's not fair, that big monster attacked us, you should be blaming that thing-not us!" Roxas yelled.

"A big monsters huh? Wasn't there for whatever monster you're talking about," He looked over to his lackeys; Rai, Fuu, and a mysterious creature known as Vivi. "Rai and Fuu, I know you two went, did you see any 'big monsters'."

Rai and Fuu shook their heads.

"Heh, didn't think so." He smirked. "I know, why don't we have a Struggle Tournament here, but with our bare hands instead!"

"Four against two?! That's not any fair!"

"Who said we were playing by the rules."

"Beatdown," Fuu said.

"Yeah, get ready to go home cryin', y'know!"

"We'll show you who's going to be crying, right Xion?"

"No, I said we should get going, didn't I?" Xion sighed and grabbed Roxas' arm.

Xion bounded onto the roof of one of the cascading buildings and leapt from rooftop to rooftop, not letting go of his arm until she was sure Seifer and his gang had no idea where they were.

When they reached a safe distance, Xion let go of Roxas' arm and gave him an annoyed look. "Roxas, we still have a job to do, we don't have time to get into fights," She scolded.

"...You're right, sorry." Roxas summoned his keyblade. "Let's get to it," With his keyblade summoned, they were able to attract the heartless much easier and within no time, a group of heartless rose from a shadow etching the rooftops.

Roxas went on to fight the heartless while Xion stayed behind and took note of his encounter with them. '" _Emblem heartless...mostly green, there's a helmet covering its head and it's around a fourth the size of a Nobody..."_ ' She decided to draw a picture as well in case her description wasn't sufficient enough.

Xion followed Roxas as he moved in closer and fought more heartless. '" _This type of heartless is defeated quickly with just a simple melee weapon or weak magic and it fights back primarily with swipes from its claws._ "'

'" _Alone, these types of heartless are weak, but to counter that, they appear in large groups in an attempt to overwhelm its target. When they attack in groups, it's best to use more advanced melee attack and magic that has wide coverage."_ '

She stopped writing. _'I think that's good, there just needs to be a name now.'_

Roxas slung his keyblade over his back after destroying the last heartless. "Xion, have you written enough, 'cause I've defeated all the heartless in the area, if you want, we can move to a new area."

Xion walked over to Roxas. "No, I have enough. All I need is a name."

"Oh well, I'm sure you'll come up with it eventually, I know, maybe some ice cream will help!" Roxas suggested.

"If you say so," She said, smiling.

Xion followed Roxas down off the rooftops and through several tight alleys packed full of people bustling by, presumably attracted by the monster attack that happened yesterday. They eventually entered the center plaza where an ice cream shop was stationed. Roxas and Xion ran over to the shop, he pulled out some of the munny he picked up from fighting the heartless and began counting it.

"...ten...twenty, perfect, I have just enough," Roxas placed the munny on the counter. "Two of the usual, please,"  
Roxas took the two ice cream bars, then gave one to Xion. "Wait, before you eat it, I have a surprise for you!"

"A surprise?"

"Mm hm, but you have to cover your eyes first,"

"Oh, uh, ok," Xion placed a hand over her eyes.

"Alright, no peeking 'till we get there," Then Roxas took her by the hand, suddenly she felt the wind whip at her face when Roxas took off, jumping high up in the air and zipping past several buildings and obstacles.

She could hear the voices of everyone, even Seifer's gravely voice who was yelling at them to slow down. Eventually, the sound of their voices became quieter and quieter and the air got colder, more frigid. Roxas's grip on her hand tightened the further up she felt like they were going. Finally he slowed down until he came to a full stop, then released his grasp on Xion's hand.

"Aaaaaand, you can look now!"

Xion moved her hand away and was treated to the sight of a giant clock tower glazed with orange from the neither setting or rising sun. Roxas lead Xion to the ledge of the clock tower and sat down. Beyond them, sprawling across as far as they could see was all of Twilight Town. It was a beautiful, mesmerizing sight unlike anything Xion had ever seen before.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Roxas asked.

"Yeah..."

He bit into the ice cream and Xion did the same.

"Axel used to take me up here after every mission when we were partnered together, and we'd eat ice cream together. After he left, I kinda forgot how good ice cream tastes when you eat it with someone."

"Axel...who is he to you?"

"He's my friend, my first friend."

"Could...I be a friend?"

"Sure, I'll ask Axel whenever he gets back...-Oh Xion, I almost forgot, I have something to tell you about the heartless I fought,"

"Hm?"

"When I approached them alone, they would run away from me until some of their friend's would show up, and when the heartless were in groups and they realized I was too strong for them, a few of 'em would run away. Kinda weird, huh?"

"Mm," She got out her report and quickly jotted something down.

"What're you writing?"

"I figured out what they should be called—it's the perfect name."

"What is it?"

"I'm calling them...Deserters."

XxXX

**Day 25**

"Xion, your report on Deserters was very well done, among the best I've seen, keep it up," Saïx said to Xion just as soon as she and Roxas walked into the Gray room.

"Th-thank you, sir." Xion mumbled.

"In any case, here are the details for your next mission," He gave Roxas the mission report. "Is something the matter?"

"Will...we be going to other places besides Twilight Town?"

"You will go to wherever your report tells you to or else, is that clear?"

"Yes, sir." He mumbled.

"And another thing, your mission with Xion is of critical importance, I left a few papers on the main table detailing new, more powerful spells and melee attacks you don't know yet. Read through them, carefully."

"Of course."

With that, Roxas waited for Saïx to disappear completely before turning to Xion. "Saïx is really scary sometimes,"

"Yeah, we should do our best on the mission so we can stay on his good side."

"Tch, doubt he has one, here," He gave Xion the mission report and she read through it.

"A Class B mission, I guess Saïx was right about this mission being 'of critical importance', we should read the instructions he gave us."

"Mm."

They walked over to the large table hugging the back wall, it was usually cluttered with Luxord's playing cards, but with him gone, and only Xaldin standing around in the Gray room, the table was noticeably bare. Roxas and Xion both picked up a few of the papers neatly stacked on the table.

Xion skimmed through the list of spells section. _'Hm, there's a ton of great new spells here, and some stronger versions of one's I already know...let's see, how do you cast them?'_

"Hey watch this, Xion!"

Roxas' voice broke her train of thought as she was studying how to cast the spells, she was so fixated on learning, she had no idea Roxas was holding a flaming keyblade in his hand.

"R-Roxas!" Xion sputtered out. "What're you doing?!"

"It's called Fire Raid, I wanna practice it before we go out on the field so I can use it properly!"

"That...doesn't sound like a good idea."

"Don't worry, I won't hit you," He threw the blazing keyblade anyways and it flew in front of him. "See it's supposed to come back to—" But as Xion figured, instead of coming back to him it spiraled out of control. Xion ducked out of the way under a couch while Roxas attempted to get his keyblade back.

' _This is not good, if Saïx comes back he's totally gonna turn me into a dusk!'_ Just as Roxas was merely arm's length away from the keyblade, he lunged at it, only for the keyblade to fly past him. "-crap!" He grunted while trying desperately to scramble back on his feet.

The Keyblade was now gunning for Xaldin's head who made no efforts to move out of the way and seemed completely unbothered by the whole situation. "Hey Xaldin, watch out!" Roxas yelled.

Without bothering to turn around, Xaldin caught the keyblade in his hand effortlessly, the flames blew out the instant the keyblade was in his grasp and he then threw it Roxas who caught it clumsily. "If you're going to play with your toy, do so outside of the Castle," He grumbled.

Roxas squeezed the handle of his keyblade.

Xion walked over to him, seeing how the danger was clear and safely in his hands. "He's right Roxas, that was kind of stupid of you."

"Yeah, I know, but, it looked cool, right?"

She thought for a moment. 'Should I say no so he won't try and do that again or lie to make himself feel better.' "It was um, hey Roxas, we should get going on that mission."

"Right..."

Roxas opened a dark portal and the two stepped through. When they emerged from the other side, they were yet again at a different location in Twilight Town. This time, at a busy street called 'Side Street' entailing many different stores and outlets.

"Let's go somewhere else," Roxas whispered.

Xion realized people were giving them stares, though that part was understandable, they did walk in out of nowhere from a portal after all. Xion followed Roxas' lead and went to a more desolate part of town in the alleys.

"I'm not sure where we should start looking, but as long as I have my keyblade, they should come to us," Roxas said.

"Whatever you say." Despite agreeing with him, Xion could tell he sounded unsure of himself.

OoO

A couple of hours passed and there was still no sign of any heartless, just an emptied out town with a few people walking about, enjoying the twilight.

Roxas whacked his keyblade to the ground, scaring one of the rats lurking around. "I don't get it, where's the heartless? Why isn't it here already?!"

"We'll just have to go look for it ourselves," Xion suggested, she got herself up. "It must not the sense the presence of your keyblade."

Roxas stood up as well. "That's a good point, so then where should we look?"

"In the farthest part of town, maybe."

"I saw a train station around here a while back, let's board it and see where else Twilight Town has to offer."

"Great idea."

Xion followed Roxas, finally she was beginning to keep up with him more easily by matching his fast pace and swift movements. Thankfully for her, Roxas slowed when he knew they were close to the train station and adopted a more leisurely pace, allowing for Xion to catch her breath.

"Just a little more ways to go before we reach the train station!" Roxas exclaimed.

The moment after those words escaped his lips, he fell backwards and was thrown against a building. There, stood a Darkside, the heartless they were hunting for. Giant and terrifying with a torso carved out into a heart, it's head was covered in slimy, black tentacles that showed only its bright, yellow eyes.

Xion stood still, motionless. _'H-how can we defeat this thing?!'_

The Darkside formed a ball of darkness in its claws, then threw it up in the sky where it burst into a shower of smaller, more compact balls of darknesses.

"I'm so sorry Roxas, but I can't do this, we can't win!" Xion turned around to run away.

"XION!"

Xion suddenly fell forward as she was pushed to the ground by Roxas. "Xion..." He muttered.

Roxas' eyes closed and his breathing slowed. His back was red, and bruised, the cloak on his back was tattered and burned off, Xion held him close. "...Why did you do this," She squeezed him. "Why are you so...nice...to me?"

The Darkside slammed its fist on the ground and the resulting shockwave sent Xion and Roxas flying , Xion held onto Roxas as they were propelled backwards. She was able to regain footing midair and set Roxas down next to a pile of debris.

"You helped me...now it's my turn to help you!"

Hordes of heartless emerged from the ground to supplement the Darkside. "Thundra!" Xion yelled expelling most of the heartless, her next target was the Darkside. "Fira!" A burst of fire emerged from her fingertips and set the creature on fire, though after the fire burned out, the creature remained standing. Nothing.

She tried again. "Blizzara!" Still no results, the Darkside shook off the bitter cold as if it was nothing.

Switching to the defensive, Xion dodged dark projectiles that spewed out from the Darkside's torso as well as the occasional head on attack from the heartless. Xion leaped onto the side of the building and ran down sideways to dodge the shockwave the Darkside was preparing.

' _If I can't use magic, then it's hopeless.'_ Directly ahead of her was Roxas' keyblade, lying in the rubble. _'I wonder.'_ She propelled herself off the side of the building then grabbed the keyblade.

"I hope this works!" Xion threw the keyblade as hard as she could and it spiraled towards the Darkside. The keyblade tunneled straight through its head and the Darkside dispersed into the air. Nothing of its existence remained except for the inky black substance stained on the ground and buildings.

In her hand, a keyblade appeared. "It came back to me? No...this is mine." She looked over to Roxas and smiled to herself. "My own keyblade."

Xion picked Roxas up and took him back home. Once back in the castle, she made her way to Roxas' room and set him on his bed. "Roxas...you gave me the strength to protect, I can't thank you enough for that." She said, softly to him.

XxXX

_Shattered pieces scattered across...scattered across shattered pieces...with the power of the keyblade...put the pieces back together in a world broken apart._

_'A world broken apart?'_

_'Shattered pieces?'_

Xion woke up with a startle.

"Xion, I'm glad you're awake!"

"Roxas...I guess I must've fallen asleep while I waited for you to get up."

Roxas was staring at her and she started getting nervous. "Is...there something wrong with me?"

"Uh, no, sorry." He rubbed the back of his head. "It's just that...your face."

"My face?"

He finally saw Xion, a girl around his age with short black hair, a round face coupled with rosy cheeks and deep blue eyes, the same color as his. "I can see it now."

"Um...how do I look?"

"Pretty."

Xion could feel her face getting hot, so she pulled her hood over her face.

"Aw, after I finally just got to see your face, hey, so then, what happened after I was knocked out by the Darkside anyways?"

"I destroyed it with this," She summoned her own keyblade.

"Whoa! I didn't know you could use a keyblade!"

"Me neither, until I realized what was important."

Roxas pointed at himself. "Me?"

She nodded. "Of course you, silly, and um...thank you..."


	3. The Other

**Day 26**

On her way to Roxas' room, Xion found several members talking in the hallway on their way to the Gray room. _'I wonder what they're talking about?_ ' She decided to trail behind them and silently listen in on their conversation.

"...what in the blazes happened?" Xaldin asked.

"I-I dunno, man, I just found out!"

"Are you sure you didn't just fabricate the whole thing?"

"As if," Xigbar interjected. "Demented here is telling the truth for once, I heard Saïx and boss man gossiping about how at least one of the folks who were sent to Castle Oblivion were axed out for good."

Demyx rolled his eyes. "'Demented'?! Are you serious?"

"Completely."

Xaldin looked at both Demyx and Xigbar. "Hm, so were you able to determine who it was that got destroyed?" He asked.

"Who knows, I just hope it was Vexen, that guy annoyed the hell out of me."

"Please, Larxene is way worse than Vexen, she's always screaming into my ear about how loud my sitar is, I really hope she got her butt handed to her in CO."

"Word has it, Saïx had a hand in choosing which members would go and intentionally recommended for Marluxia to go because he had this huge thing against the guy, bet he's hopin' it was Marluxia."

"—ahem." Saïx joined them and the conversation quickly died. "I have no such feelings against Marluxia. Nor do I have feelings, period."

"Right-right, the whole 'I have no feelings because I'm a nobody' getup, heard it a thousand times from boss man, but it does sound like you know more about what went down at CO than us, do tell," Xigbar said.

"I don't know anymore than you at this point."

"What?!"

"It's simply a report I got from Axel, but he has a cryptic way of disclosing information," Saïx gave Xigbar the report. "See for yourself."

"...' _I'm pretty sure one of them is dead_ '." Xigbar read aloud.

"Is...that it?" Demyx asked. "That Axel dude sure is weird."

"Agreed. So saxophone,"

"Saïx," He corrected, sighing.

"Right, that's what I said, you gonna give us our work today, I know that's what you're here for anyways."

"Yes," He handed Xaldin, Xigbar, and Demyx their reports. "Xigbar, and Demyx, you both have different partners for this particular mission."

"Why's that?" Demyx asked.

"I found it most suitable for the type of missions you'll be going on." Saïx then took his leaving and disappeared out of sight as usual.

Xigbar looked over his mission report. "Looks like I'm stuck with the Roxas kid again, it's been a while," He threw the report on the floor and began his hunt for Roxas.

Xion bent down to pick the tossed paper up.

"Xion?"

At the mention of her name, she looked up. "Yes?"

Demyx gave her the mission report for her to look over. "You talk now?"

"I found a reason to." Xion said, she then quickly scanned the report. "We're going to...Wonderland?"

"Sounds like you've never been there before, don't worry, it's a regular write-stuff-down-because-there's-a-new-Heartless mission."

' _So that's why Saïx paired me with someone different, Demyx must not be that good at writing reports.'_ "You want me to write the report, right?"

"That and fight the heartless too. Meanwhile I'll play inspiring music for you while you do all the sweating."

"You'll what?"

"I am the captain, after all, that means I get to tell you what to do since I'm in charge!"

"If you're the captain that means you have to do more work than your teammate!"

"Good point, then I'll be the team mascot and you can be captain!"

"If I'm the captain that means I'm in charge so you have to do what I say, and the includes contributing to the mission!"

"I will be contributing, my music, remember?"

Xion sighed, it was clear she wasn't going to win this one. "Let's just go already, you lead the way."

Demyx created a dark portal and Xion followed him in, though she was excited to see a brand new world, she was disappointed she couldn't share her discovery with Roxas, or even share ice cream together with him like she had hoped.

The melancholy feeling sank into her stomach as she traversed through the curdling darkness, but when she entered into the other side, the feeling of melancholy turned into wonder at the sight of the new world they were in.

"This really is Wonderland," She murmured to herself. Upon first inspection they were in a typical forest, but soon it became alive. Densely packed with whimsical creatures and decorated with bright, vibrant color palette, even the trees and flowers themselves were bursting with personality.

"Meh, all the bright colors kinda make me sick."

"Demyx..." She sighed again. "I bet all the colors will make it easier to spot the heartless,"

They continued through the woods with Demyx happily strumming his sitar, Xion stopped walking after a while. ' _This doesn't make sense, how are we seeing the same trees and flowers again…'_

"What's the hold up?"

"I feel like we've been going around in circles,"

"That's really weird."

"You've been here before, don't you know your way around?"

"Um...well...I've never been in this part of Wonderland before, usually I end up at a house or a garden. I have no idea where we are."

"That's no good."

"Perhaps," Said a voice.

They turned around to the location of the voice and saw a toothy grin and a pair of beady, yellow eyes staring right down at them. A head and the body of a bright pink, striped cat couple the grin and eyes, forming a creature home to the forest known as Chesire cat.

Demyx and Xion were both equally put off by this strange, dismembered creature, but probed anyways.

"Whoa, you're a strange lookin' cat," Demyx said. "Have any idea on where we are?"

"Why, you're here." Answered the cat.

"Can you tell us how to get out of here?" Xion asked.

"All you have to do is leave in order to get out of here."

Xion and Demyx collectively sighed.

_'We aren't getting anywhere with this cat.'_

"I guess we should properly introduce ourselves, I'm Xion, and my partner is Demyx, what's yours?"

"They call me Cheshire cat, but they certainly don't call you 'Xion'." To him, Xion had spiky brown hair with blue eyes. "They call you Sora."

"Xion looks like Sora under that hood? That's new." Demyx simply didn't see what the cat was talking about. Xion looked the same to him as the first day she arrived, and that was faceless.

Xion shook her head. "Ugh, enough of this...Mr. Cat, you're getting us sidetracked, do you know where any Heartless are?"

Cheshire Cat took his head off and tossed it around from paw to paw. "Heartless? Perhaps they're scattered across here in tugley woods, or maybe, around here in tugley woods, they're scattered across. It could be, they aren't here at all."

"Are you saying we're looking in the wrong place?"

"I suppose if they aren't here, neither would you." He sat down on his head as if it were a stool. "Have you considered the possibility of searching in plain sight?

"In plain sight?"

Demyx shook his head, frustrated. "When are you gonna start making sense so we can finish this mission already?"

"Making sense? Ha, we're all mad here in Wonderland." As he was talking, his body vanished, leaving nothing, but his mischievous grin, then that vanished too.

"What now?" Xion looked to Demyx who shrugged his shoulders in response.

"I'll leave you to figure it out," Demyx got his sitar out and began strumming to a familiar tune.

 _'I don't really understand, but I think Mr. Cat must be telling us to look around closer in this forest.'_ Her thoughts were soon drowned out by an amped up version of Demyx's tune, she turned around and saw a bouquet of large flowers surrounding him and humming the music.

"Demyx! There's flowers all around you!"

No response. Xion chewed her thumb. _'He's so absorbed by his own music, he doesn't realize those flowers are wrapping around him. What should I do...oh, I got it.'_ She twirled her fingers. "Stop!"

Demyx and the flowers froze in place and the forest became eerily quiet. She approached them. "Wait a second..." Upon closer inspection, she realized the 'flowers' around Demyx weren't typical lilies or roses, rather in place of a typical pollen filled receptacle, there was a pitch black face, identical to that of a heartless.

"In plain sight huh, this must be the heartless." She took her pen and paper out. " _'Emblem heartless...appears to be a flower with a green stem and pink petals, but in reality, it's a cleverly disguised heartless with a hexagonal face. Around half the size of a nobody, it's fairly large when comparing it to a regular flower.'"_

Xion drew a picture of the flowered heartless then put her supplies back. "All that's left is for me to fight it." She waited for the stop spell to lose its effects before summoning her keyblade.

"Demyx...Demyx!" Xion called out. Still no response, she gripped the handle of her keyblade. "I'm Sorry!" Whacking Demyx with her keyblade quickly took him out of the trance his music set him in.

"GAH! Ow-ow! Why'd you do that Xi-" Demyx paused when he saw the giant heartless flowers wrapped around his body. "W-what's going on?!" He yelled.

Demyx quickly grabbed his sitar and strummed furiously. "Dance water, Dance!" A couple water clones of Demyx appeared and by his command, they pried all of the heartless flower off of him. "Now get to it!"

While the heartless flowers tried to fight back by shooting pellets at the clones, they simply went straight through. One hit from one of the clones' sitar was all it took for the heartless flowers to go down and in no time, the bouquet of heartless were destroyed.

"' _These heartless attack with bullets, though much like themselves...they're weak. They counter this with their huge size and trickery...I call them Dire plants.'_ " She stopped writing, satisfied with her report.

"Ah...that was a close one," Demyx said. "Glad this sucky mission is over, finally."

"Wait, before we RTC...um, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"That music you were playing earlier, does it mean anything to you, you really seemed to like it."

"It's a song I remembered from when I was a human, that's why it's so special to me. When I play it, I feel like the world stops just to listen."

_'He remembered that when he was a...human. Do I remember...being a human…?'_

XxXX

**Day 27**

_'I hope Roxas is doing ok, I haven't seen him in a few days, I want to tell him about going to Wonderland!'_ Xion thought to herself while she moved down the blank hallways. When she reached Roxas' room, she knocked first, then opened the door only to be unpleasantly surprised by Saïx's and Xemnas' ominous presence.

"Xion...number XIV...you're here to check on Roxas, are you not?" Xemnas asked, his deep, subtle voice sent a chill up her spine. At that moment, she was screaming at herself to leave, but she stood still, transfixed on seeing Roxas one more time.

"Y-yes," Xion squeaked.

Saïx stared straight through Xion to which he then looked at Xemnas, he shook his head and they both allowed for Xion to see Roxas.

Xion went up to the bed. "Roxas." She smiled, brushing a strand of blonde hair away from his sleeping face.

"The boy won't be waking up anytime soon," Xemnas supplied.

"That means you're the Organization's sole collector of hearts," Saïx dumped a stack of reports in her hands. "It's a months worth of Roxas' missions. I expect you to complete them in a timely manner, if Roxas hasn't woken up in that time, you'll get another month's worth."

She looked at the stack of reports sourly. "I'll have to do these alone?"

"No, I've arranged for you to have a partner for each mission, but you can always go solo when you feel like you're competent enough. You may also complete these missions in any order you like, as long as you complete them."

"Yes sir."

"Xion," Xemnas said before she left. "Do not stray off the path the Organization's given you."

"Of course." She walked out, finally, contemplating on what Xemnas told her. ' _There's a path for me to follow?'_

OoO

Xion was back in the Gray room, sifting through the mission reports. 'This is such a heavy load, is this what Roxas had to do everyday?' The bulk of them, as she expected, were more report writing missions. 'Well, it's better than staying in my room all day, and I get to see more worlds...too bad it can't see them with Roxas.'

One particular mission report caught her eye and she skimmed through the entails. 'This one takes place in Olympus Coliseum, and all I have to do is collect some heartless, sounds easy enough, even though it is a Class C mission. Hm, I'll start tomorrow!'

XxXX

**Day 28**

Today in the Gray room, only Saïx and Xigbar were present, though Saïx presence was a constant that she simply got used to. _'Xigbar's my partner for this mission, I don't think he likes me that much, but I don't really care.'_ Clutching the mission report she walked over to Xigbar was lounging on the sofa.

"E...excuse me…" She muttered.

"Huh? Speak up poppet, can't hear you over all this silence."

"Excuse me," She said more loudly. "Y-you're my partner, for this mission...to Olympus Coliseum..."

"Ah-is that so, lemme have at it." Xigbar held his hand out and Xion gave him the mission report.

"Class D, huh? Child's play, should take no less than an hour to finish up, as long as we don't get caught up with the locals."

"Get caught up with the locals?"

Xigbar eased himself off the sofa. "Yeah, seems like you're the type to help them or something, you and Roxas, you're both so nice." He stretched his arms out then ripped out a dark portal from the wall. "Sucks that we're the bad guys."

OoO

Xigbar and Xion momentarily appeared on the other side of the dark portal. Xion was treated again to the intoxicating feeling of seeing a world for the first time, unlike Wonderland, which was in a whimsical forest, in Olympus Coliseum they were stranded in an open land surrounded by various ancient houses and buildings with a towering coliseum being the main attraction.

From the people dressed in Ancient Greek clothes to the arched buildings supported by tall columns, it was entirely different to how she was used to towns looking yet still vaguely familiar.

"Poppet, remember what I said about the locals." Xigbar said, standing up from his crouched position. Having been here before, he strategically warped onto the roof of someone's house. "We have to be careful as to not let the Organization's motives be revealed. That, and you stick out like a sore thumb against all these humans, so I wouldn't be out in the open too often."

_'And you don't stick out either?'_

"One other thing, most heartless hate people, so they typically won't show themselves out in the open unless they're controlled by someone else say...someone like Ansem or Maleficent." Xigbar pulled his arrow-gun out from a cesspool of darkness and pointed it at the crowds of people. "Watch and see, poppet." He let loose an array of arrows.

Xion silently watched Xigbar shoot at the citizens, her anger rising each second she had to sit and watch. They scrambled to get out of the open and run away from what was attacking them, while a few got hit merely by chance, Xigbar had no intention of simply slaughtering them, where was the fun in that?

"There," He blew off the smoke sizzling from the nozzle of his arrow-gun. "Now that's how you clear out a city."

Xion and Xigbar jumped off the rooftop and into the now cleared central plaza where the Coliseum proudly stood.

"And that's how you make an entrance."

Xigbar pointed his arrow-gun at a group of heartless. "Viola."

Her grip on the keyblade handle tightened with each step Xion advanced on the pigmented shadows. ' _Maybe he doesn't hate me after all,'_ Xion slammed her keyblade on the ground, producing a shockwave that disintegrated most of the heartless.

She threw her keyblade at the remaining heartless and destroyed them upon impact. _'But I sure hate him.'_

"I wouldn't spoil my entire moveset so early, we still have a few more heartless to kill, I'll go scout 'em out—later!"

"..." Xion breathed a sigh of relief. _'Finally, he's gone,' She examined the area. 'And since he's gone, I guess it wouldn't hurt to look around~'_

"—hey kid! Glad you're back!"

"Huh?"

Xion fell forward and got her hair ruffled by what she could describe as a half goat, half human hybrid.

"Long time no see, Sora!"

"Sora?" Xion said while combing her hair back into place. 'There's that name again, I mean, he doesn't seem crazy like that cat in Wonderland.'

"Sir, you have the wrong person, I—"

"Of course you're the right person, what's gotten into ya, and what's with the 'sir' crap?" He patted Xion on the back. "Phil's fine!"

Phil grabbed Xion's arm and dragged her all the way into the vestibule of the coliseum. Inside was as grand as she expected with a giant showcase full of shiny trophies. Xion looked at her reflection in the showcase glass. _'I must somehow look different to him why does he think I'm...'_ Branded on a few of the trophies, she saw Sora's name. 'Sora again, but I know I've never been here before.'

"It's the usual again, there's a bunch of those little black bugs, Heartfelt, or whatever you call 'em, well they're messin' up the Coliseum and we can't hold our tournament since they attack just about everyone." Phil said, he paced back and forth on the vestibule grounds, his hooves clicking on the slabs of stone. "I sent Herc out there to deal with them, but he hasn't come back yet, mind picking his slack up?"

"Yes sir...I mean Phil! I'm right on it!" Xion ran through the opening and into the arena.

 _'Wow! This place...it's huge!'_ The humongous size of the Coliseum dwarfed her, there were rows upon rows of stands surrounding the main center stage, that was where the hundreds people would sit, of course, however there were no people, only discarded trash and an inky blank substance that coated practically every inch of the Coliseum. 'It's too bad this place is a mess.'

"Oh-hey Sora! Get over here!" Called out a young, muscular man from the arena who was thrashing the heartless around.

"I'm coming!" Gripping her keyblade, she ran over the mob of heartless swarming by him.

Xion slashed through several heartless and released their hearts. "Take that!"

"Sora!" Hercules motioned to a heavyset heartless forming at the edge of the arena. "Ready?"

"S-Sure!"

Right before the heartless could attack them, Hercules formed a light barrier that made the heartless stagger backwards giving Xion enough time to quickly slice through it.

"Awesome! Couldn't of done it without ya, Sora!" Hercules pat Xion on the back a little bit too hard and she propelled forward. "Oh, sorry about that!" He called out.

"Ugh!" Xion pulled herself up and dusted off the dirt from her cloak. "It's fine...I'm ok..."

"Huh? Are you sure you're ok? And come to think of it, where are your friends-Donald and Goofy, right?"

"Um...they took a vacation."

"Ah those two were some slackers, hm, so then I'm assume you're here to become a real, true, genuine hero!" He flexed his muscles. "Like yours truly."

"Ok, I guess being a hero is something he would...I mean I would want."

"That's just what I like to hear, as you can see the Coliseum is a mess, but I have another way that's sure to make you a hero for sure."

Xion was curious now. "And what's that?"

"Don't go around telling Phil, but there's this bandit out terrorizing people, no one's seen the perpetrator yet, let alone has caught them, so if you help me catch the bandit, it's sure to make you an automatic hero in my book at least." He flashed a smile. "You in?"

She nodded. _'I hope this bandit isn't who I think it is.'_

OoO

Hercules and Xion made their way outside the Coliseum, all but a few people were scattered across the open city, most were cooped up in their homes. "The attack happened right here," Hercules said. "And since then, I heard the bandit has been sneaking into homes and stealing whatever they could get their hands on."

' _It's definitely who I think it is, but why is he still here, I thought he would of of RTC by now.'_ "We should look in places that're desolate and...quiet, where there's not much people around," Xion suggested.

"That's too obvious, we should look in homes or in public areas,"

"Maybe the bandit is shy around people and...hates to be seen in public! That's why no one's see them!" Xion argued.

"True. Alright, I'm convinced, let's go at it, I have the perfect place in mind."

When the two set off, Xion was noticeably lagging behind due to Hercules' wide strides, though it didn't bother her as she was completely lost in thought. ' _There's something familiar about this...about Hercules...about Sora._ ' Xion watched the beige and brown colors of the homes seep in a dark blue color as if the dark sky seeped into the town. _'I know Sora's been to at least Wonderland and Olympus Coliseum and any world he's been to that I go to, I look like Sora to his friends.'_

"Sora."

She stopped. "Yes?"

"So I..." He rubbed the back of his beefy neck. "I don't know how to say this, but I've noticed you're not acting like your usual self."

"I'm not really myself at all."

"Huh? What do you—"

"Wait, hold on." 'I know that presence.' She summoned her keyblade and held it out in front of Hercules. "You have to get out of here, it's dangerous!"

"Heh, you don't have to worry about me-" With his lightning reflexes he was able to grab an incoming heartless and smash it in his meaty palm all before Xion registered the encounter. "Besides, that's my line."

Immediately after the heartless was reduced to nothing but a black spot on the ground, they both received a scratch mark on their face. Xion grazed a hand over the cut. _'Ow...it stings…'_ "These heartless are fast, that first attack must've been a diversion!"

Several humanoid heartless rose from the ground, though having the typical antenna, yellow eyes and pitch black color, they were of a much higher caliber. _'Those...are neoshadows!'_

"Tricky, eh, nothing brute strength won't fix!"

"Throwing punches won't help, they're relatively intelligent compared to the one's we faced earlier, you have to keep that in..." Xion sighed. Hercules was already in the mix of neoshadows, aimlessly punching at the heartless and missing every time. _'Wait, this can work out to my advantage.'_

"Magnet!" Xion invocated. She decided to cast the spell on Hercules, which drew in the neoshadows to him, with the neoshadows so close, he landed hits more easily and any he missed, Xion threw her keyblade at.

 _'That does it...I think…'_ She pulled back, keyblade in hand. _'But I still feel his presence…'_

Hercules wiped his hands, stained from the black substance dripping from the hollows, on his chiton. "So about what you said earlier, I think I see it now," He said. "The longer I stay with you, the less and less you look like him...like Sora, but no matter what you look like, he still reminds me of you."

Before Xion could say something back, Hercules abruptly fell over, she ran over to him. "Oh no! Hercules!" She shook him back and forth. Nothing.

"What a pleasant surprise seeing you here, Poppet."

She spun around. "Why did you do that to him?!"

Xigbar rolled his eye. "As if, it's not like I killed that idiot, we're not allowed to do that anyways," He said the last part in a scornful manner which visibly disturbed Xion. "And he was wasting time, the mission ended when you killed those last neoshadows."

"Besides, you had your little fun, right, searching for the bandit, well, at least I had fun being the bandit."

Xion tried her best to act surprised. "I would've never guessed you were the bandit," She muttered.

"Cheeky aren't we, heh. Well, no use in standing around like idiots, let's RTC, we're done."

Xigbar tore open a dark portal and the two walked through. "Poppet," He said as they were making their way though the darkness. "Once the Coliseum gets fixed why do we go mano a mano in there. I heard you defeated a Darkside with just one hit and your performance today was...good. I'd love to see how strong you think you are so I can crush your dreams."

"Pass."

"The offer's still on the table in case you change your mind."

Xion walked ahead and entered into the Gray room again, without bothering to check in with Saïx, she headed directly into Roxas' room. "Still asleep, huh?" Xion could no longer smile at his sleeping face and longed to talk to him again about the worlds she visited.

"—Oh I know," She pulled out a couple seashells. "I found these seashells a while back lying around in Twilight Town, I'll bring you some everyday until you wake up so you won't miss out!"

She set down the seashells next to him then stood back. "That's a promise I'll keep."


	4. Day in and Day Out

 

**Day 35**

Xion returned to the Gray room with the intention of completing another mission, it became a routine at this point and she'd gradually gotten used to talking to the other members and asking for them to join her, save for Xigbar of course. Though today's mission started out differently than she expected, for starters, Saïx was already waiting in the Gray room.

 _'Saïx is in here today? That's strange.'_ Xion thought, walking inside.

Saïx walked over to Xion once he saw she was here. "Luxord hasn't come back from his mission in Wonderland, since the other members are absent, it's your mission for the day to go fetch him. You'll also be collecting hearts along the way, so don't leave immediately after finding Luxord lest you've completed your secondary objective."

Xion scanned over the mission report. "It's a Class A mission...should I prepare first?"

"Only if your current prowess is incompetent," He gave her a potion. "This should suffice."

"Understood, I'll be off then."

OoO

Xion entered into an uncomfortably small, tacky colored room, completely different from the whimsical forest she saw when she first entered Wonderland. _'I guess there's more to Wonderland than I thought,' She searched the room. 'There must be a way out of—oh there's a door, I almost didn't see it.'_

Xion bent down to meet with the tiny door down at the bottom. _'I hope I can squeeze through this tiny thing,'_ She clamped her hand on the doorknob only for it to move away from her hand. ' _That's...new…'_ She tried again and the doorknob moved again.

Determined, she reached for the doorknob one more time and the entire doorknob moved to the other side of the door. Her once placid smile sank into a frown. _'What's with this stupid doorknob?!'_

"Pardon, but is that any way to open a door?"

"Hm," Xion looked behind her. "Where did that voice come from?"

"Down here,"

Xion's eyes followed the voice, her eyes widening when she realized it was the doorknob talking to her. "Wow! A talking doorknob? That's so cool!" She exclaimed.

She tapped on the handle of the doorknob. "So this must be your nose?"

"Why yes, and I would appreciate if you didn't—" The doorknob's face scrunched and it let out a small sneeze. "—do that…"

Xion giggled, where else would she of ever gotten to see a doorknob sneezing in her own boring world. "Bless you Mister doorknob," She managed to squeeze in between her laughter.

So fascinated was Xion by the animate object she nearly forgot why she came here in the first place. "So is there any other way for me to open you?"

"As always, why don't you look behind you, lad?"

Xion's face twitched, her eyebrows knitted together as she went to look behind her. _'I'm still Sora to them…'_ Behind her was a table that came up to her waist, on it, sat a small portion labeled 'DRINK ME' in fancy handwriting. _'That definitely wasn't here before, this place sure is weird.'_

She drank the potion and suddenly, the same table that was up to her waist was now towering above her. In fact, the world around her was larger than life, including the tiny doorknob she had to bend down to seem now was massive in comparison to her small size.

"Did everything get bigger or did I get smaller?"

"The latter." The doorknob replied.

Just as she was about to meet with the doorknob again, she felt a familiar presence looming over her. Xion jumped back, keyblade in hand, watching as the ground ahead of her turned pitch black. As expected, three pureblood heartless crawled out, any other time, she would have defeated them effortlessly, but now with her small size, it was going to be a challenge to defeat even one.

' _Are you kidding me?! They could've came at any other time, but right after I drink the potion?!'_ She clenched the keyblade handle. ' _If I can make them tiny too with that potion, I should have no problem with them, all I have to do is get up there somehow.'_

The heartless mindlessly lunged at her, though unfocused and disorganized, they were relentless and Xion had a hard time dodging them. One misstep sent her flying backwards onto the table leg. "Owww…." She rubbed the back of her head to soothe the throbbing.

Barely a few seconds passed before the heartless were back on her tail again and they charged towards her. Xion, still dazed, got back on her feet. _'I have an idea, maybe I don't need to get up there after all!'_

Xion stood steadfast while the heartless darted to her, right as they were nearly on top of her, she jumped away. She stood back and watched the table fall all the way down, bringing the potion down with it and shrinking the heartless as its contents flew all over the place.

Pulling her keyblade back, Xion smirked at the miniature heartless scampering away from her. She threw the keyblade and it circled around the heartless, destroying every one of them and freeing their hearts.

"Yes! It worked!" Xion finally let herself breathe. "Now to go through that door!"

"More of those black creatures, how bothersome," The doorknob commented. "Well, glad they're gone, care to pick up that key so you may enter Wonderland?"

"That key?" Xion noticed a giant golden key laying out in front of her. "Is that a keyblade? No wait, it's just a regular key." She heaved the regular key onto her shoulders.

"Whenever you're ready, also, I left something you might need at the other side of the door, use it as you see fit."

"I will, thanks!"

His mouth formed into a keyhole and Xion unlocked the door.

 _'I'm...in the forest now?'_ Xion had entered back into the whimsical forest from her first trip in Wonderland, the same forest neither Demyx or herself could figure out to escape. Before venturing further, she saw a box labeled 'EAT ME' in big, boxy handwriting that laid flatly in front of her feet.

 _'This must be the present Mr. Doorknob mentioned.'_ After picking up the box, Xion promptly opened it and was surprised to find icing decorated cookies inside. She took a bite out of a blue iced cookie and felt her body rapidly grow larger.

"I think I'm back to my original height!"

Just then, more heartless appeared, however, they were so small she almost didn't see them if not for their distinctive, rancid smell they gave off. Xion simply stepped on them and they were easily destroyed. 'Uh...maybe they're just naturally small like that!'

Xion sighed. "Now all I have to do is figure out how to get out of here…"

"—oh I'm late, I'm late!"

A small, white rabbit clutching a pocket watch, frantically ran under her legs.

"The queen will have my head for sure!"

_'He must know the way around here.'_

Xion followed the rabbit, trying her best to keep up with what looked like a white blur to her, eventually after enough twists and turns to make anyone dizzy, she entered into a clearing. The white rabbit was gone unfortunately, but she was confident she could go on by herself from here on out.

 _'I wonder where Luxord could be?'_ Xion wondered while walking down a yellow road, for what she was used to, the clearing was strangely empty, though there were a few houses touching the horizon, there was no creatures to fill the world in and make it so wonderful.

*shuffle-shuffle-shuffle

Xion stopped. _'Huh that noise?'_

*fwip

*fwip

 _'There it is again, I think I'll follow it.'_ The peculiar noise lead her to one of the houses touching the horizon, much to her surprise, Luxord was there, sitting at a table along with a man in a top hat and a brown hare.

"Luxord!" Xion bent down as she was too big and tall for them while standing up. "Wait-what're you doing?"

"Tea and poker," He answered, then added, "Care to join us?"

"Actually—"

"Yes, the tea we have is quite lovely, I'll pour you a cup since you asked!" The March Hare poured the tea onto the poker table, despite that, the liquid was still able to take form of a tea cup.

"What goes better with one cup of tea, than two?" The Mad Hatter grabbed one of the many tea kettles, threw out the mouse that was inside, then poured the tea inside of his collar. The tea traveled down his sleeve into a teacup that formed in his hand.

"And what goes better with two cups of tea?" He pulled his hat up revealing several tea cups stacked on top of his head. "Thirty three tea cups!"

Xion smiled stiffly. "Luxord, how long have you been here?"

"Days I assume," Luxord shuffled his cards. "Everyone here is mad, but surprisingly well at poker, I almost don't want to RTC."

_'Has Luxord gone crazy too from being here for so long?!'_

He continued. "My mission was simply to capture the dusk that escaped from the castle and ended up in Wonderland, but when I arrived, I couldn't find the dusk ergo I stayed here."

"Are you sure you can't leave, it's a just a dusk, I'm sure Saïx wouldn't mind."

"It's not just any old dusk, it's the Organization's finest and I won't leave until I capture it."

' _More like you won't leave until you finish your poker game.'_ "If I capture this dusk for you, then will you RTC?"

"Of course." Luxord threw her up a small tonic. "You might want to drink that, unless you want to stay so giant like that."

Xion drank the tonic and returned to her normal size.

"Do you have any idea where the dusk is?" Xion asked.

"If I did, I would be there right now." He dealt the cards out to the Mad hatter and March hare. "But I do feel its presence lingering around here."

Xion walked away, not stopping until she could no longer see them and they were just a house sitting on the horizon. 'Finding heartless is relatively easy, but how do you find…a nobody…'

"Oh...I'm so very extremely late!" The same white rabbit that lead her out of the forest was once again scurrying down the road.

Xion naturally followed the white rabbit and made sure not to lose sight of it. The rabbit lead her into a beautiful rose garden with what appeared to be a courtroom in the center, Xion looked around, unsure what to make of the situation.

' _This place is empty too, I wonder why?'_

She picked up a strangely colored rose that looked as if the red color was an unfinished paint job. ' _Someone was definitely here.'_

"—hey you!"

"Hm?" She looked down and saw the white rabbit angrily twitching its nose at her. "Do you need something?"

"You must be the one who stole the Queen of Hearts, tell me where she is or else!" He yelled.

Xion smiled, unwavered by the threats of a cute rabbit. "Sorry, I have no idea where your queen is, but maybe we can look for her together."

"Yes, I suppose that's more sensible." He tapped his foot. "Where do you think she's run off to?"

"Beats me, let's go back to the forest and ask Mister Cheshire Cat, he seems to know a lot…"

Abruptly, a claw grabbed the white rabbit and he turned into a playing card right before her eyes. Instinctively, Xion summoned her keyblade. "W-what was that?! Come out if you're hiding...or else!"

She saw another claw lunge for her and she quickly leaped backwards. A massive, sinuous, white creature revealed itself to Xion, indescribable as it was unpredictable, there were playing cards circling all around its body, each having the face of a different inhabitant from Wonderland.

' _So that's where they all went!'_ "Why don't you come back to the Organization?"

"I'm tired of you coated nobodies controlling us dusks, now it's our turn to control you!" The dusk announced.

"I won't let you!" Xion cast a blizzard spell on her keyblade and flung it at the dusk. "Take that!"

The dusk nimbly dodged the keyblade with its fluid like movements and Xion was forced to call her keyblade back. 'I'll try this!' Xion charged at the dusk, keyblade held out in front of her, now that she had more control, she was able to whack on the dusk's head a couple times before it pulled back.

"Maybe you won't be so hard to beat after all," Xion said cheekily.

"Tch...not for long!" The dusk summoned one of the cards from its deck and held it out in front of its body.

Xion ran up to the dusk, intent on swatting the card away, but stopped suddenly. Her keyblade was near inches away from a young girl with blonde hair. "Wha-what's going on?!" Xion yelled.

"I can use memories to change my own form. I guess, somewhere deep in your memories, you know this girl or something, heh, doesn't matter to me!" The girl kicked Xion in the face, though with her frail body, it didn't take much toll on Xion.

Xion held her keyblade out in front of her body. ' _I know that girl isn't a real girl, but, something about harming her repulses me. I have to think of an alternative…'_

The girl opted to use her cards instead to severely damage Xion and she threw several of them at her. Xion jumped out of the way, and was careful not to hit the girl when she swatted the cards away with her keyblade.

The dusk's next form was the white rabbit, still clutching his pocket watch in one hand, the rabbit summoned several gigantic cards that circled around Xion.

"Try and dodge this!" The rabbit yelled, the cards slammed down and trapped Xion.

 _'There has to be a way out of this!'_ Xion batted the cards with her keyblade to no avail. Xion watched The circle of cards slowly enclose around her. _'If I don't think of something I'll get crushed...wait a second!'_

Xion raised her keyblade to the sky. "Gravity!"

A purple sphere surrounded the cards and they were momentarily forced down onto the ground, sighing, Xion escaped and faced the now angry white rabbit. "There's no way out of this...I'm sorry Mr. Rabbit!"

Xion tightly held her keyblade and ran towards the rabbit. Reeling her keyblade back, she was prepared to whack it in its face, but just before the keyblade could make contact, she dropped it.

"How could you-YOU COWARD!" She screamed.

The dusk's new form was a replica of Roxas, everything, down to his deep blue eyes and windswept blonde hair was perfect. Roxas held several cards inbetween his fingers, smirking. "You nobodies never had any feelings, emotions, don't act like you do now!" Even his voice was identical to the Roxas she longed to talk to once again.

"Shut up!" Xion tried to punch Roxas' grinning face, but couldn't force herself to do that much, let alone look at his face.

"Is that all? I thought you were better than that, no wonder you're just a puppet. The Organization never needed you."

"I said SHUT UP!" Xion grabbed her keyblade and stuck it in the ground, she fell to her knees. _'Why is this so hard...I can't do this…'_

Roxas rolled his eyes. "Pathetic," He said, then threw several cards at her.

Xion tried her best to deflect the cards, but still found her sleeves completely tattered and strands of hair at her feet.

 _'I have to do…'_ When she looked up, just like that, Roxas was on the ground, a card sticking out of his neck. "What kind of sick game is this?!"

"My, what a spectacle to be held. I almost admire your arbitrary use of playing cards." Luxord said.

Xion winced when Luxord dug the card further into Roxas' neck, but was relieved when the dusk turned back into its original form. "Luxord...I thought you were playing poker…" She muttered.

"Emphasis on the 'were', besides I lost," He said, saddened.

Luxord faced the dusk. "A desolate integumentary of what was once absolute can have no authority over those who can still retain our former image," He threw his own special card at the dusk, trapping it within the card.

He picked his card up. "Remember that and perhaps your fruitless efforts can bear consequences."

Xion stared at Luxord's back. ' _He's so serious now...'_

With the dusk gone, the Wonderland inhabitants escaped from their flat prisons one by one. Xion could finally smile to herself, happy to help them out.

"Well now, an ace, just the card I need for my hand," Luxord said.

"For your...hand?"

"Quite, I've decided to have a rematch with those mad fellows at the tea table. I'm sure I'll win this time!"

Xion immediately marched over to Luxord and grabbed his arm. "You can do that later, right now we're going to RTC so we can end this already."

"Uh…it'll only take, but a moment."

Xion looked back at Luxord, her face darkened.

"Right, let's RTC!"

XxXX

**Day 49**

"A recon mission?" Xion asked.

"It's a simple Class D mission that Xaldin will be assisting you on, all you have to do is gather intel on the new world you're in and the status of the inhabitants that live in that world." Saïx explained. "At least it's simple if you choose not to interact with their affairs."

"Are we not supposed to do that?"

"We're not supposed to be there period, but I trust you'll make the appropriate choice. Well, go on now, the mission won't do itself."

"Okay…"

Xion realized Xaldin already created a dark portal and ran to catch up with him through the darkness.

OoO

"What a beautiful world," Xion said under breath as she exited out of the dark portal. The new world was a sprawling city built up from the endless vaults of sand that surrounded the area. When they arrived, it was nighttime, though the moon hung up in the sky, the city was as alive as ever with people bustling around the sand covered streets.

"What an annoying world," Xaldin grumbled. "It'll be nigh impossible to do a recon mission with these thieves all over the place, shame there isn't a way to clear them out."

Xion held her breath and watched Xaldin intently.

"I suppose we'll just have to be extra careful, is that clear Xion?"

' _I'm glad Xaldin isn't anything like Xigbar, though he's still intimidating and...definitely scary.'_

"Xion." Xaldin repeated.

Dazed, Xion shook her head. "Y-yes sir, of course, I'll be out of sight!"

Without any indication, Xaldin walked away, Xion scrambled to keep up with the dark haired man as she was completely absorbed in the new world they were in.

"I highly doubt you've been on a recon mission recently, so I'll go over the entails," Xaldin began. "All that has to be done is to record any peculiar findings and of course the enemy's behavior."

"Another mission where you write stuff down? I take I'll be doing the writing?"

"No, I will, you search the area and report to me."

Xion pointed to herself. "Me?"

"Yes you, now follow my lead."

Xion followed Xaldin as he jumped off of the rooftop and landed harshly right out in the open, their presence was welcomed by loud screams and dozens of staring eyes on them.

Xaldin looked over to Xion. "I'll be around here, report back to me in a timely manner."

Xion nodded only slightly, then parted ways with the bruting figure. "Peculiar things…" She muttered. "I think this entire world counts as peculiar, seriously, I should've asked Xaldin about what I was supposed to look for...I was just so…-"

Bringing her into the real world, Xion stumbled forward when a small monkey holding some kind of treasure slipped under her legs. Without a second past, she fell over, and found out what the sand tasted like.

"-Oh man! I'm so sorry!"

Xion was pulled up off the ground and met face to face with a handsome, rugged looking young man.

"That was totally all my fault," Aladdin said. "...well, scratch that, it was at least 50% Abu's fault, hey but, I know stuff like that doesn't get to you!"

"...uh...um.."

"C'mon Jasmine and I kinda need your help, a huge sandstorm hit recently and most of the city's been in ruins. This big market place you see here is the only place that doesn't look like a total disaster and we can use the extra help, too bad your other friends aren't here though."

"…" Xion stepped away from him.

"Hey, this is no time to be lazy, besides Jasmine would love to see you again!" Aladdin took a step closer to her. "Hey, what's wrong? Your face is getting red."

"It's um, this heat, I have to get going Aladdin," She paused. ' _How do I know this guy's name? I don't know him, but he knows me, so I must be Sora to him. That must be how I know.'_ "...something came up…"

Aladdin watched Xion disappear into the crowds of people, he shook his head. "That's weird, the heat's never bothered Sora before."

Xion navigated her way through the sudden influx of people and tried to locate Xaldin, it should've been easy to find him, but with all the people swarming around, it was proving to be difficult.

"Hey you, over here!" She followed the voice to one of the street vendors. "You lookin' to buy some goods, well you're in luck, I got the best jewels in all of Agrabah!"

"...Actually I have a question for you. Have you seen my partner, he's really tall, mean face, wears a big black coat like mine you can't miss him."

"Sorry, doesn't ring a bell, must've missed him, but you can't miss this," He held out a big, shiny diamond, but at that point she was already walking away.

 _'I still feel terrible for not helping that guy out, maybe I should go back.'_ Xion felt an arm on her shoulder. "Is that you...Xaldin?"

"Yes, now what have you found out?" He asked.

"The rest of this world is in a bad state due to a recent sandstorm that hit. Some people are trying to clean it up, but they need extra help..."

"I see. I suppose it must be the doing of heartless. What else have you found out?"

"...Nothing else."

"In that case, let's head to this world's 'castle', based on the information I got from a reliable vendor, their castle is just north of here."

"Since we're here, we should get rid of those heartless for them and collect their hearts. That is the purpose of this organization after all."

"Meddling with the affairs of these humans only waste valuable time, we're here for a recon mission, that's all. You may be inclined to help, but the real you is meaningless to them. The real you has no feelings towards them, one way or the other."

"That's not true! You don't know anything about me!"

"Do you really think you know any more about yourself...Number 14."

Xaldin sighed. "We've wasted enough time, come now, to their castle already."

"Yes sir."

He took off on the wind and pushed through the crowds of people to make his way onto the rooftops where he could travel freely without hindrance. When the palace began to peek over the horizon, he slowed down.

"I expect from here on out, there will be many guards patrolling the area," He said. "We shouldn't be spotted, at least, I won't be spotted, but if the worst happens, record my encounter with the guards. Is that understood?"

There was no response.

After waiting a few seconds, Xaldin looked over his shoulder and finally realized Xion was long gone.

Xaldin let out a short sigh. "That puppet is too sentient…"

OoO

It didn't take long for Xion to reach the other parts of Agrabah, compared to the business of market street, the rest of their world was quiet, abandoned, and covered several feet deep by a blanket of sand.

"I wonder where he…" Xion noticed slight crevices in the sand that were not yet blown away. She approached the small crevices. "These are footprints, they must be Aladdin's!"

Following the footprints lead Xion to a small restoration site where a group of people were busy fighting off several heartless. ' _Aladdin is mixed up in there somewhere,'_ Xion summoned her keyblade. _'I have a pretty good plan on defeating them too, this should be easy.'_

Xion stuck her keyblade in the sand. "Time to collect hearts!" Xion dragged her keyblade through the sand as she ran to the heartless, when she reached the, she swiped her keyblade up and sand sprayed all over the heartless, blinding the soulless creatures.

"Hey, Sora!" Aladdin waved his sword. "You came back!"

"Of course." Xion said.

Together, Xion, Aladdin, and the restoration crew easily wiped out the heartless. When it was clear not another black creature was standing, Xion put her keyblade back and prepared to take off.

"-Hold on!" Aladdin called out, she paused, giving him the chance to run up to her. "You aren't just gonna leave already? You really saved our butts out there, we should celebrate together!"

"Aladdin...I wonder, is the reason why I helped you was because I felt compelled to or that I really wanted to help you."

Aladdin shook his head. "I know there's something...different about you, Sora, you don't know me, isn't that right?"

"..."

"See, you don't know me, but you still helped me, even though you had no reason to." He bent down to her level. "That's what counts."

"I guess you're right...oh that reminds me, Aladdin, didn't you say someone else was with you?"

"So you remember that, huh? Jasmine went back to the palace because it was too dangerous for her to stay with all the heartless around."

"The palace? Isn't that like a cast…" Xion's eyes widened. ' _That's right, I nearly forgot about Xaldin!'_

Xion ran off, she waved her hand good bye to Aladdin, who watched confusingly as she disappeared behind the sand dunes.

' _Maybe he didn't notice I was gone, the "palace" could be pretty far away,'_ At the pace she was going, it would only be a few more minutes until she reached market street.

"Xion."

' _He noticed.'_

Xion slowed down to a stop. "Xaldin, it's not what it looks like!"

"What're you doing in a place like this?" Xaldin asked as he came up from behind her, he must of been waiting there for some time.

"You were going so fast, and I got lost!"

His glare hardened.

"...I decided to help that human out." Xion admitted.

"I know. I figured my warning fell on deaf's ears. Though, in your absence, I investigated their castle, what have you done?"

"There's relatively weak heartless in this world, nothing out of the ordinary."

"Good, I'll compile everything into a report so we need not be in this world any longer."

"You can RTC without me, there's one thing I want to do."

Xaldin created a dark portal while Xion headed towards market street.

XxXX

Xion walked into Roxas' room holding a seashell, she expected for the room to be empty, like it always was, but when she opened the door, two dusk's ran out of the room.

 _'Why were two dusk's in his room?'_ She approached Roxas in his bed and saw that his face was crudely drawn on to make him look like Xigbar.

"...Roxas…"

Xion started wiping the marker off his face, her own face was scrunched from trying to hold her laughter. "I can't help it…!" She burst out in a fit of laughter. "Your face looks so funny!"

"Hah...too bad you can't see how you look, I bet you'd probably hate it though, looking like that creep and everything." Xion grinned as she set the seashell down next to a growing pile of seashells she previously collected. "I went to a new world too, it was so beautiful, but I didn't forget about you."

She stood up, still snickering a little. "I'll come back tomorrow, ok? Sweet dreams…"

Xion walked out, surprised again to find Saïx waiting outside the door, though she didn't feel surprised in a good way.

"Saïx?" She asked slowly.

"Don't get your hopes up, if he doesn't wake up by tomorrow, then the boy's probably dead."


	5. I'll Think Of You

**Day 50**

Xion created a dark portal, today would be her first solo mission, partly because she wanted to prove her own worth, but mostly because was too distraught to think about getting a partner.

She entered into the streets of Twilight Town, no longer impressed by the scenery and moved along, keyblade in hand.

"Collect 20 hearts…" She muttered. "I guess that's all I'll be doing if he's..." Shaking her head to get the thought out of her mind, she began her search for heartless.

In a more empty part of town, she spotted a few heartless and made quick work out of them. ' _Ten more will satisfy the quota.'_ She wiped away the black substance that dripped off her keyblade.

Xion walked around silently, unbothered by the stares she was getting from her cloak and keyblade. Eventually, she came across another horde of heartless lurking by an abandoned building. Winding her keyblade back for a raid attack, she lit it up on fire with a fira spell and threw it at the group of heartless.

The heartless dispersed into hearts and she continued on. _'Three more.'_

"—Hey you, stop right there!"

 _'It's Seifer again.'_ Xion kept on walking.

"I know you hear me whatever the hell your name is!"

Xion walked faster.

"Wait, where's your idiot friend, the blonde one!"

She stopped, squeezing the keyblade handle until it hurt.

"Seifer..." Fuu said.

"You sure we wanna bother her, she looks upset, y'know!" Rai added.

"Shut it you two!"

"I get it, he must of left 'cause he doesn't like you anymore! That's why you're so pissy!" He yelled.

"...Get out of the way." Xion muttered.

"Huh, what're you talking about?"

"I said..." Xion spun around, she threw the keyblade as hard as she could in their direction. "GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

Seifer and his gang threw themselves out of the way and the keyblade sliced the heartless that were lurking behind them.

"I'm not in the mood." Xion caught her keyblade when it came spiraling back. "So don't bother me." With that, Seifer and his gang ran away.

Her head head hung low as she continued her walk down the street, it was empty except for one or two people walking around. _'Roxas...you can't be...no...Saïx was lying I know it.'_

 _'I can still remember you...your smile...that's how I know.'_ Xion ended up at the ice cream parlor, she didn't realize it herself, but her feet moved without a conscious guiding it.

"Two, please."

She exchanged munny for two sea salt ice creams.

 _'This is your favorite Roxas...I remember that, it's my favorite too, and your favorite place to eat them is at that clock tower.'_ Xion headed to the clock tower, she'd been there many times throughout the days Roxas was asleep, alone she would sit on the ledge and eat ice cream as she watched the stagnant sun.

Like so many times, Xion sat down on that same ledge, and quietly ate her ice cream. Today, she could only think about one thing.

"Xion?!"

Xion turned her head around and there, was Roxas. She stood up and her first impulse was to hug him. "Roxas...I'm so happy to see you...!" She hugged him tighter. "I was so worried."

"Xion, what happened to me?"

"You were asleep for a long time, Saïx told me you weren't ever going to wake up and that you...but none of that matters now, you're here, that's what matters!"

"You missed me..."

"Roxas, you're my partner, of course."

"No...you're more than that...you're a friend."

"A friend?" Xion smiled to herself and let Roxas go. "Here, I have something for you." She whipped out an ice cream bar.

Roxas' face lit up. "What, really, for me?"

"Ice cream taste better when you share it with someone."

They sat down the ledge and ate their ice cream, it tasted so much sweeter than usual.

"So...what were you dreaming about while you were sleeping?" Xion asked, then added. "You must of had a lot of them since you were asleep for so long."

"I was dreaming about a boy and a girl and they were at a beach...The girl was named Kairi and the boy was named Sora."

"Sora...do I look like him to you?"

"No, you look like that girl...Kairi, I'm the one who looks like Sora."

"Oh, that's good to hear, I was worried that I looked like a boy for the longest time."

"Huh? What've you been doing while I was asleep?"

"Doing your work for you!" Xion said jokingly.

Roxas rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, hey, I'll make it up to you, ice cream is on me from now on."

"Hm, I'm not sure if that'll make up for all the back breaking work I've had to do~"

"Aw give me a break Xion, I still feel like a total zombie, I guess there are some things even a nap won't fix."

Roxas and Xion both started laughing.

"...Roxas…" Xion finally managed to say when she began to calm down. "There's one more thing I want to give you."

"You're not gonna hold it against me, are you?"

"No, silly," She got out a pearly white seashell. "It's a seashell, I've been picking one up for you every time I went out on a mission. Hold it up to your ear."

Roxas held it up to his ear and closed his eyes. 'I see them...Sora and Kairi.'

XxXX

**Day 51**

"Where do you think you're going? Just because Roxas is awake doesn't mean you're done, you may see Roxas after you complete your mission."

Xion's shoulders sank, she took the mission report from Saïx's hand and made her way to the Gray room. ' _What is with him, I can't tell if he hates me, Roxas, the both of us equally or not at all.'_ She glimpsed over the mission report. _'Whatever, it's just another collect hearts mission in Twilight Town, I'll be done in no time.'_

Emerging from the dark portal into the sandlot, she expected to see Seifer and his gang lurking around, but they were nowhere to be seen, instead three different kids took their place.

"You're the one who scared Seifer, Rai, and Fuu away the other day, right?" Asked the boy with blonde hair

"Sorry, I didn't mean to," She rubbed the back of her head. "I was really upset that day."

"Actually it's totally awesome that they're gone, now we have the sandlot to ourselves for a couple of days, hey, what's your name anyways? Mine is Hayner," Hayner gestured to the two other kids standing by him. "This guy here is Pence, and she's Olette."

"Nice to meet you guys, I'm Xion unless...do I look like Sora to you?"

"Sora? Never heard of 'em, besides I'm not sure what you look like with your face covered up by that hood."

"You must be apart of the same group as those other guys with black coats, you guys are in the news a lot," Olette remarked. "Everyone thinks you're all in a you know...cult."

 _'A cult? What in the world is that? Either way I can't let them know our true intentions.'_ "No...we're in a club, and we get rid of monsters called Heartless."

"Whoa! That's so cool!" Pence exclaimed.

Hayner scratched his head. "What the-monsters?! I mean, that Vivi guy looks kind of strange, but I haven't seen any monsters 'round here!"

"Wait seriously?"

"Yeah, that whole mess at the Struggle tournaments was obviously staged."

"I'll prove it to you then!" Xion held her hand out.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"The heck're you doin' you crazy witch?"

Olette eyebrows knitted together and she gave Xion a kind of 'i'm-very-worried-for-you' look. Pence meanwhile wasn't easily swayed and still looked enthusiastic.

"I'm not a witch, it's just not working today, that's all!" 'I don't get it, my keyblade...where is it? I always summoned it so easily.' "Ok, well, I still have magic, look!"

She pointed her finger at the ground. "Fire!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

Olette and Pence looked equally worried for Xion while Hayner was rolling his eyes back as far as he could.

"Well, uh...hope you have fun in your cult...club, club I mean. C'mon let's go guys."

Olette and Pence followed Hayner out of the sandlot while Xion sunk to her knees, devastated. 'If I can't fight, what good am I to the Organization? That's it...I won't come back until I can summon my keyblade and complete this mission.'

XxXX

**Day 58**

Xion was sitting alone in the sandlot, neither Seifer and his gang or Hayner and his friends would come anywhere near the sandlot for different reasons and she was left in solitude. A feeling so familiar to her yet so foreign. _'It's been a week already with no results. It's hopeless...I can't go back now.'_

"Hi, what's your name?"

She didn't look up. "Xion." She muttered.

"I'm Vivi."

Hearing footsteps approach her, she finally looked up to see who she thought to be a heartless in oversized clothes. "Vivi..." She repeated. "That's a nice name."

The black mage sat down next to her. "I've seen you around here, I was too scared to go up to you, but you look really lonely."

"Thanks, and I am lonely, I promised myself I wouldn't leave this place until I could summon my keyblade and practice magic."

"Really? Well I can help you with the magic part, I'm a black mage after all."

"You would do that for me?"

"Mm hm, you aren't like the other guys in black coats, they attacked me because I was a 'fancy looking' heartless to them, but that's not true."

 _'Now I kinda feel bad for thinking Vivi was a fancy looking heartless too.'_ "Uh no, it's not true. You're nicer than any heartless...or nobody."

"I'm glad you feel that way, let's go somewhere else, there's a special place I like to practice magic myself."

"O-Ok!"

XxXX

**Day 65**

"I don't get it, we tried everything, every single spell, every single enchantment, every single summon and nothing's worked so far!" Vivi said, exasperated.

Xion paced around in the sewer they were in, from the stoned up walls to the once rat infested floor and crevices, every inch of Vivi's personal training ground was completely covered in an array of colors, substances, teeth marks, scratches, burns, corrosion, every spell Vivi knew and not a single spell Xion could replicate herself.

"My power must come from the keyblade, even before I had the keyblade, the power was still within me, untapped. But now I truly think that power is gone forever. I'm useless."

"So what if you can't cast any spells? Now you're just like any other human, is that such a bad thing?"

"But I'm not supposed to be just like any other a human! I'm not even human."

"Neither am I, I don't really know what I am. Grandpa always told me I was black mage, but he doesn't look like me...and now that he's gone, I'll never know who I really am. The only comfort I have amongst all this sorrow is that I know I exist."

"...Vivi," Xion said. "You don't have to think about who you are, you're you, you're somebody."

"You are too, Xion, maybe you can't fulfill a purpose, but you don't need a reason to exist. Live for what you've already done, not what you can't do anymore, ok?"

 _'He really doesn't understand...if I'm useless that means I'm disposable too.'_ She forced herself to smile. "Vivi, I think I get what you mean! I'm ready, I want to try again, are you sure there are no more spells?"

"That's great! Now that I think about it, I can check Grandpa's old stuff for some archaic spells, stay here, I'll be right back!"

Xion strolled around the sewers. _'Even when I think of you, nothing seems to work. I really am stuck here, aren't I? At least I'm not totally alone.'_ She noticed a small cane lying on the ground. "It's Vivi's staff...he dropped it."

She picked it up, it was cold despite being in Vivi's grasp for so long. "Fire!"

"..."

"Still nothing...maybe if I try and use it in battle, I hope Vivi doesn't mind." Xion walked out of the sewers and into the open.

She was suddenly whipped backwards and thrown into the side of a building, she climbed out of the debris, the weight of darkness was such a presence around her, it was suffocating.

_'I know this feeling, that stench...a Darkside.'_

"F-Fire!" Her voice was shaky and her legs were trembling, but she stood firm in the slight hopes it would work.

"..."

Frustrated, she threw the stick on the ground, and the Darkside took the opportunity to lunge for Xion. Acting quickly, she ran into the crevice of an alley. ' _That thing can't reach me in here. I'll just wait until it disappears.'_ When she tried to shift her body weight, however, a sharp pain shot from her leg. ' _Or maybe not.'_

XxXX

**Day 74**

Xion stumbled out of the alley, by now, her leg was healed enough to walk on its own, however the ability to walk was the only one she regained. "It's time to get back..."

Though her own fortune only brought misfortune as the Darkside inevitably returned from the shadow it was hiding from to end Xion's life once and for all. Luckily, however, before the Darkside could even act, its head was chopped off completely by a fiery weapon.

"What was that?"

"XION!"

Roxas came running for her, his image like a dream, when he finally reached her, he tackled hugged her and they both fell on the ground. Seeing his laughing, smiling face made all her worries, all her doubt, all her disbelief melted away and she began laughing along with him.

"I missed you so much, I was worried!"

"Roxas...ROXAS!" Xion grabbed Roxas' sleeves and rolled the two of them out of the way right before the now headless Darkside could crush them.

"Focus! We still have a job to do!" Axel yelled out, charging at the Darkside with his other flaming chakram in hand.

Roxas stood up and summoned his keyblade, he sprung forward and dug the keyblade in the Darkside's body while Axel sliced his torso in half. Finally, the Darkside dispersed and a mere single, but large heart was released.

Roxas ran back to Xion and helped her up. "Are you ok? Why didn't you come back?"

"Hold up, we can talk all about what happened to Xion at a more appropriate place," Axel said. "Right now, you two find somewhere to sit, I'll be right back." ' _I wonder why Xion still has their hood up? Heh, that's so standoffish, not sure how they ever made friends with Roxas.'_

"Well you heard him, let's get going to the clock tower."

_'The clock tower, why didn't Axel just say that in the first place?'_

They went up to the clock tower and sat down on the ledge, silently enjoying the view as the usually did.

Xion faced Roxas. "Axel...is he really a friend? He seems so...distant," She said. "Like all the other members."

"Axel's not like that, he's nice...he was the only one who wanted to be around me, and he's really funny too. Just not right now, I guess, I think he's kinda shy around you. Like how you were around me when we first met."

"Roxas, I don't think that's the case."

"Huh?"

"Your friend...I don't know how to tell you this, but he's weird."

"—Aw you don't really mean that," Axel jumped down onto the ledge, holding three ice cream bars in hand. He passed two out to Roxas and Xion then kept one for himself. "I'm not that weird."

"..." Xion held onto her ice cream while Axel and Roxas dug in.

"You're not gonna eat your ice cream?" Axel asked, finishing his already. "I didn't spit in it or anything, if I did, I I'd probably give it to Roxas."

"H-hey! That's it, you're not buying anymore!"

"Heh, works for me."

"It's not that, the ice cream, it's just that..." She stopped herself.

"Xion," Roxas nudged her arm. "You can tell us anything, we'll support you no matter what."

Xion twirled the ice cream between fingers. "The thing is, I can't use my Keyblade anymore and I lost my ability to use magic along with it."

"What?! How did that happen?!"

"I don't know, but I was so embarrassed and frustrated that I couldn't use my power, I decided not to go back until it returned to me. After a while of no results, I was hopeless, I thought I was never coming back. Thankfully, I met a friend who tried to help me at least get my magic back, but that didn't work either. A Darkside attacked me soon after and I was stuck here for good until my injury healed, then...you came."

"You realize it don't you, what this means...My orders were to collect hearts, now that I can't do that, I'm no longer of use to the Organization and I'll get turned to a dusk. The truth is, I wasn't planning on ever coming back, but now that you're here, I kinda feel guilty about it," She said, giving him a wry smile. "I guess this is goodbye."

"Don't say that! I won't let you get turned into a dusk!" Roxas desperately looked to Axel. "Is there anything you can do?!"

"If I could, I would've by now, but you heard what Xion said. No keyblade, no can do."

"That's ok." Xion felt the usual stinging in her eyes and a lump swelling in her throat. No matter what she wanted to tell Roxas or herself, she was terrified at the idea of turning into a dusk and losing everything, including her existence as 'Xion' and becoming only a memory.

"Axel! You gotta be kidding...there has to be some solution."

"...Hey I'm racking my brain here-hold on, I think I got it!"

"What is it?!"

"What if you worked...double duty!"

"Huh?"

Xion perked her head up. "What do you mean, Axel?"

"Xion, make sure you stick with Roxas as your partner for every mission until you can control your keyblade, that way Roxas can collect hearts and no one will ever know you can't do the same." Axel suggested.

"Ah! Axel you're a genius!" Roxas exclaimed.

"Yes, yes I know, but...you have to collect twice as many hearts on your missions with Xion in order to make up for Xion's share."

"Leave it to me!"

"Are you sure I won't be too much of a burden?" Xion asked.

"No way, I can handle it."

"Besides, Xion, didn't you also say you couldn't use magic anymore? Now that's a quick fix, just buy an ether from the moogle shop and drink it up, once your magic is recharged, you can cast as many spells as you want," Axel said. "Magic is depleteable y'know."

"A-Are you serious?! All this time..." She shook her head. "Thank you so much Roxas...Axel, you didn't have to do this much for me."

"No big deal, that's what friends are for, sometimes you have to lean on 'em a little, right Roxas?"

"Mm hm."

"Thanks...so...Axel, does that mean you and I can be friends?"

"Well, yeah, you didn't even have to ask. Any friend of Axel is a friend of mine."

Xion's face brightened, a smile crept across her face, the weight of so many doubts that hung over her like a dark cloud was lifted. "Maybe you're not so weird after all, Axel!"

Now, Axel could see the face under Xion's hood, the real Xion. "I am just a little weird, I'm friends with you two."

"Hey!" Roxas snapped.

Xion let out a few giggles and finally delved into her ice cream. It was a perfect balance between saltiness and sweetness. "...Oh! I nearly forgot." She stood up on the ledge.

Axel and Roxas turned to her with confused expressions.

"I need to see a friend," She supplied. "I'll be right back."

"No, let's come with you, in case something happens," Roxas said.

"Uh...erm," She mused it over. "Ok, just promise you won't be freaked out when you see him. He looks like a heartless, but you can't say anything about it."

Axel and Roxas shared glances.

Xion crossed her arms. "Well?"

"We both promise," Roxas said.

"Good. Follow me then, I think I have an idea where he's at right now."

OoO

Xion, Roxas, and Axel entered the sandlot, Seifer's gang was there for a change, but when they saw Xion, they ran the opposite direction, all who was left was Vivi, drawing a picture in the sand with his staff.

"Vivi!" Xion called out, she ran over to him while Roxas and Axel lagged behind.

' _Yeah, this must be the fancy looking heartless the others were talking about.'_ Axel bent down to Roxas' level. "She wasn't kidding, the kid has yellow eyes and everything." He whispered.

"I know, but we can't act surprised." Roxas whispered back.

"X-Xion?!" Vivi cried, he dropped his staff and went over to Xion. "I thought that you were...that you were dead!"

"No, I was only trapped, but then they saved me," She motioned over to Axel and Roxas. "And good news, it turns out I could use magic all along, I just needed an ether."

"That's it? Well...I guess now that you can use magic, you'll be leaving now, won't you?"

"I will, but I'll come back and we'll still see each other from time to time."

"See you again?"

Xion kneeled down and hugged Vivi. "See you again."


	6. Inseparable Bonds

**Day 75**

"I'll have 10 ethers, please," Xion said.

"That'll be 200 munny, kupo." The moogle replied.

"200, but..." Xion glanced over at the shop sign. "An ether costs only 10 munny, so that means 10 ethers would cost—"

"200 munny, I put a little tax bonus for each ether because the surplus money goes out to moogle's in need..." The moogle pulled out a tissue and blew his red bulb nose. "It breaks my heart to see moogles like me on the streets, not knowing where their next meal will come from, if it comes, that's why I set up this shop in order to give back, kupo."

"Really, that's so sweet! Here, I'll give 300 munny instead!" Xion handed the moogle her munny and got 10 ethers wrapped up in a bag.

Xion turned to Axel who was standing beside her, rolling his eyes the entire time. "Look Axel, I got the ethers and helped out those poor moogles out!"

"Right-right, poor moogles," Axel narrowed his eyes at the moogle who was sneaking in a few snickers behind her back.

Xion popped the cap off and drank one of the ethers, she felt her body tingle for a moment and all the magical energy she had lost came back to her in an instant. She extended a finger out and said, "Fire!" Just like that, a small flame burned on the tip of her finger.

"You were right, Axel! Now I feel kinda stupid for thinking I lost my magic completely."

"Would it help if I said you can also heal your wounds with a potion, and buy magic too? It's the general store for nobodies."

"Wha-Really?! I had no idea!"

Axel watched Xion buy out nearly the entire store, some of the stuff he wasn't sure she needed but it somehow ended up in her mountainous pile of shopping bags. She shuffled over to Axel who cracked a wry smile.

"Xion, I can't even see your face, I think you bought a little bit too much."

"I don't think I bought enough, who knows when I'll need this."

' _Try...never.'_ "Well, why don't I lighten up the load a bit?" He offered.

"Uh, sure, thanks."

Axel picked up half of the shopping bags and followed Xion to her room.

"So do you really think your plan will work...?" Xion asked.

"Dunno, we'll just have to see what Saïx says."

"I'm afraid he'll say no, I know he doesn't like me."

'"Don't worry, I'll make sure he has a hard time saying no."

They went into her room and set the surplus amount of shopping bags on her bed.

"Is that everything?" Axel asked.

"Yeah." She took a few ethers and potions to keep for herself then turned to Axel. "Thank you again for helping me!"

"I-It was nothing..." He bashfully replied.

"Hm?" She smirked. "You are a little shy."

"Am not and you don't have to be so...forget it, c'mon, let's just get back to the Gray room, Roxas is waiting for us there."

"Right."

When they entered the Gray room, Roxas, who was previously mulling around in the lounge chairs, immediately ran up to them. "Hey! You guys are finally here, took you long enough!"

"Ready to go on your mission with Xion, Roxas?"

"Yeah, let's give it a go."

Xion, Roxas, and Axel walked up to Saïx as he was standing around in his usual spot by the entrance.

"Saïx, I would like for Xion to be my partner from now on!" Roxas said.

As Saïx's blank expression melded into an angry one, Xion and Roxas' own expressions faded away into worry.

"Pardon?" Saïx uttered.

"Is...there a problem, sir? You seemed fine with me having partner...prior," Xion said.

"You were the only keyblade wielder at that time, having you go off alone as the Organization's sole collector of hearts with your incompetent abilities? A fool's choice. Now that we have two semi-competent keyblade wielders, there's absolutely no reason to waste both of you on one mission when half of our members dead as it is."

"But—" Roxas began.

"You're not about to demand anything and expect me to concede. Stay in your lane, boy."

Xion and Roxas shared discouraged glances while Axel shook his head in frustration. "Wow, Saïx, keep that up and you might give the boss a run for his munny," Axel said casually. "I mean, why not, those two are only semi-competent like you said. Put two half pints together and you'll get a whole pint, a whole competent nobody, right?"

"And...we'll do tougher missions, the toughest missions you have!" Roxas spit out.

 _'Roxas, what the heck are you saying?!'_ Xion thought.

Saïx contemplated for a moment. "...Fine, but you better make two people work like three or this arrangement comes to an end." He gave them the mission report and Xion and Roxas slowly backed away from him.

"Axel," Saïx said before Axel could join them.

"What do you want?"

"Those keyblade wielders, why do you interact with them so often?"

"I don't know, maybe because they're not jackasses like everyone else in the Organization, you oughta learn a thing or two from them."

"Your insolence never ceases to amaze me."

"Heh. I'll take that as a compliment."

Roxas and Xion were waiting around by the couches for Axel to come over, when he finally came, they pretended to be deep in conversation and not listening in on Axel and Saïx's conversation.

"Remember Roxas, keep it subtle, and go a little over the quota," Axel said, plopping down on the couch.

"No problem."

"Alright, but she's counting on you."

"Let's try our best on this mission, Roxas. If not then there's always plan B, which is me hiding out in Twilight Town forever."

Axel smiled in a crooked fashion. "Make sure we stay on the A plan."

"Don't sweat it, I got it covered, so...let's go already, Xion!"

"Right behind you."

OoO

Roxas and Xion walked into the busy streets of Agrabah, well, more like they walked into an alley by the busy streets of Agrabah as Roxas had finally got the hang of controlling where he ended up at after emerging from a dark portal.

"So there's a cave we have to investigate this time," Xion said.

"Axel and I found a hidden entrance the last time we were here, it's in the city somewhere..."

"Whoa, how'd you stumble across that?"

"By accident. Axel caught someone acting fishy 'round here so he decidedly we should tail the guy."

"Which lead you to the cave. Good call on Axel's part, so are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, the quota is uh…"

"50 heartless, 25 for the both of us. Go for 53."

"Alright. Jeez, Saïx wasn't kidding about piling the work up."

"Weren't you the one who suggested we take on the hardest missions possible. It's only gonna get harder from here on out."

"Oh yeah, sorry."

"Don't say sorry to me. I won't be the one's fighting them, silly, you are."

"Mm, you're right, but you'll help me out a little since you have magic, right?"

"Of course, that goes without saying."

Roxas lead Xion to the entrance to Agrabah, a place neither Xaldin or Xion ever went to, past the entrance was a valley of endless vaults of sand stretched as far as the horizon that encapsulated it.

Near the entrance, however, Xion and Roxas noticed a small monkey being terrorized by a swarm of heartless. Roxas ran ahead while Xion stayed behind and casted a stop spell on them.

' _Roxas is so much better with the keyblade now,'_ She recollected her own memories with wielding the keyblade as she watched Roxas tactfully destroy the heartless in few attacks, making the most of his own abilities. ' _It's selfish for me to think this, but watching him makes me so jealous, I wish I could I fulfill my purpose too.'_

When the stop spell eventually wore off, a cluster of hearts drifted into the arid atmosphere. Xion and Roxas were so absorbed by the spectacle, they didn't realize the monkey they helped out was nowhere to be seen and the only thing left was a small, crystal gemstone lying in the sand.

Xion went over and picked it up. "That monkey must of dropped this, think we'll need it later?"

"Maybe, but if we don't need it we can always pawn it off somewhere."

"Good point." She put it away. "Let's go to that cave."

They continued past the entrance into the desert. A few minutes in and the blazing sun practically melted them like ice cream onto the piping hot sand.

Roxas groaned. "Man, it's so hot," He said.

"Yeah," Xion muttered, keeping herself fanned, though it felt like she was just blowing hot air in her face. "I wish we could take these coats off."

Roxas mulled over the thought before suddenly turning to Xion. "What's stopping us?"

"Remember, these defend against the darkness. If we don't wear it, we'll be consumed by the darkness."

"That's only when we're in dark portals, now that we're out in the real world, we don't have to worry about it. Let's take our coats off!"

Xion rubbed the back of her hair, sticky and gross with sweat. "Uh...actually, I think I'm fine now!" She said quickly.

"Suit yourself, 'cause I can't take this heat anymore!" Roxas unzipped his jacket and tied it around his waist.

Xion's eyes widened. "Roxas..."

"Uh, something wrong?"

She started laughing. "Y-You're so pale!"

"Hey! Shut up!" Roxas playfully threw his jacket in her face and she fell down in the sand laughing even harder.

"Cut it out!" Xion said, still laughing as she threw Roxas' coat off her.

He grinned and walked over to pick his discarded jacket up. "You're the one makin' fun of me!"

Xion stood up and dusted the sand off her own coat. She looked over at the horizon so she wouldn't start laughing at Roxas' pasty chest again. "About this cave you and Axel found..."

"It should be just up ahead," He supplied, though his face was burning red from embarrassment, he tried his best to play it off. "And by the way, you never told me what happened when you and Xaldin first came here, watcha find out?"

"I didn't find out anything, Xaldin went on and searched the palace while I stayed back and helped Aladdin out. I'd love to see the palace one day though, I bet it's really pretty."

"Aladdin..." Roxas was silent for a moment as he blanked out.

"Roxas?"

"..."

"Roxas." She repeated.

"...sorry, I just...remembered something about Aladdin."

"Is he your friend?"

"Not at all, but he feels familiar, you know?"

"I understand how you feel." Xion looked forward. "Oh, that must be the cave!"

The cave itself was a giant sand sculpture of a tiger's head, as they walked closer, the area suddenly got a lot cooler and the sand turned dark purple to match with the cool atmosphere. Before they went any further, Xion stopped. "You smell that, don't you?" She asked. "That smell of darkness."

"They must be in those pots," Roxas pointed out. He ran up to one of the four pots surrounding the cave entrance and the pot sprouted four, needle thin legs. "Whoa!"

Xion twisted her fingers around. "Thundra!" She yelled. A gray cloud formed above the pots, Roxas leapt backwards to avoid the lightning and the pots were stunned from the shock. With the pots stunned, he easily smashed through them, releasing each of their captive hearts.

Satisfied with the hearts lazily floating above their heads, they jumped through the mouth of the tiger head. Inside, surprisingly, was a vast hall held up by tall, overarching columns and paved by stone that appeared to be centuries old.

"This place is a lot bigger than I expected!" Roxas said.

"No time to appreciate it now, look," She pointed to the heartless manifesting in the back of the room, though Roxas ran over to them, Xion decided to stay behind and investigate the archaic room herself.

'There are no other doors leading to a different area, but I have a feeling this place is bigger than it appears to be.' Xion grazed her hand over the walls, when she lifted her hand, it was caked with pale, brown dust and bits of sand particles. 'With foundation this old, maybe we can make our own door.'

"Xiooooon! Check this out!"

"What is it?" Xion asked, walking to his side.

He tapped his keyblade on a big hole in the wall sealed off from debris. "What do you think? Secret room?"

"Yeah, I feel a draft coming from it, there must be a chamber on the other side." She waved her hand away. "Stand back a little, I'm gonna try this new spell out."

' _Your efforts didn't go all to waste, Vivi.'_ Xion firmly placed her hand on the wall. "Explosion!"

The debris blew up and revealed a large room filled with an array of both moving and stationary pillars. Just in front of them was an old structure shaped like a headstone that had a small hole in it.

"Something's meant to fit inside that hole," Roxas said.

Xion bent down and felt around the hole. "Mm, the gem we found earlier should fit into this." She pulled out the gemstone and placed it into the hole. Emitting a satisfying click, the gemstone perfectly snapped into the place. "Whoa! That's pretty cool!"

"Yeah, I guess that explains where that monkey found it, but nothing really happened. Maybe we should pawn it off."

"If it was here it begin with, we should probably keep it there."

"You're right, I bet we'll find even better stuff to pawn off in this place if we keep on searching."

"Sure, let's get to exploring this area!"

Xion and Roxas jumped onto a pillar, immediately when they landed, two heartless leaped out from the shadows. Xion smacked the heartless away from Roxas' head and Roxas slashed the heartless lunging for Xion.

"Pesky heartless." Roxas muttered.

Xion shook Roxas' shoulder and pointed to an ominous looking block on a platform just a few pillars away from them. "Look over there!"

"Check it out?"

"Mm hm."

They tracked across the slowly moving pillars, along the way, Roxas swatted away more heartless from himself and Xion. "Man, this place is teeming with those little monsters." He said, hacking another one away as they landed on the block platform.

"It doesn't make sense...oh well."

"So, this block thing," He taped on the block with his keyblade. "What do you think?"

"When in doubt, give strange objects a good whack." She suggested.

He hit the block and it light up. Other than some munny spilling out of it, which he promptly picked up, nothing else significant happened.

"There's probably a few more of these in this room, let's hit them all and gather some extra munny." Xion turned to Roxas with enthusiasm sprawled across her face. "We might even find something cool!" She added.

"That so doesn't sound like you."

"What do you mean it doesn't sound like me?"

"You're not in to finding cool stuff, you just wanna do the work and maybe have some fun later."

"Oh shut up!" She said light-heartedly. "At least I have a strong work ethic unlike you!"

"Really? Look who's doin' the fighting." Roxas slung his keyblade over his shoulder. "Come on, let's go on already, you got me really excited about finding cool stuff."

"Wait..."

Xion inspected the ground below them before jumping across to the next pillar. 'What's this?' The ground was completely black and had a sort of fluididty to it, like a pool of pitch black ink slowly swallowing the area. "It smells like..." That's when it hit her, the smell, the stench she'd grown accustomed to, it was nauseating. "Roxas, I think we have a problem!"

"What's going on?"

Xion shook Roxas back and forth. "It's heartless, this place is filling up with them for some reason! Hurry, we have to find those other blocks if we want to find anything at all!"

"Wh-why?! Is this place cursed?!"

"I don't know, just get going! Come on, I think saw another block in the far right of this room!"

Roxas quickly tailed behind Xion, swatting away the occasional heartless. "Wow, I think getting to this quota won't be so hard afterall," He said.

"Not the best time for jokes!"

She landed on top of a stationary pillar, the one ahead contained an ominous block, however, the pillar was so high it scraped the top of the ceiling. Though it would be an effortless upward climb, because it was so high, if they jumped onto the pillar, they would merely land onto the vaults of heartless eating its way up the pillar.

"What do you think we should do?" Xion asked.

"I dunno, you sure you don't know any spells that would work?"

"No, I wish there was a way for me to create some sort of platform though."

"Hm...wait, I think I have it." Roxas held his keyblade out in front of him. Letting out a short sigh, he threw his keyblade as hard as he could right in the middle of the swarm of heartless.

Xion cocked her head in confusion. "What're you doing?"

Roxas walked backwards. "Xion, go after the next block, I'll be right behind you." He jumped off the pillar.

"ROXAS!"

Xion ran to the edge. "...he's...ok." Roxas was hanging off his keyblade, he pulled himself and leapt to the side of the pillar unscathed by heartless. Xion let herself breathe, her fear dissolving into relief. _'I'll go on then.'_

Xion bounded across the pillars, wary of the heartless quickly filling up the room, she finally ended up at another ominous block and kicked it. Collecting the money that fell out, she looked around for Roxas. _'No, he must be still at the other pillar.'_

' _Oh, but there's another block!'_ The ominous block was just a few pillars away from her, the only thing stopping her from immediately taking off was the infestation of heartless almost covering the pillar. She stood back and thought for a movement on an effective initiative.

 _'...ok, A blizzara spell should take them all out, I'll just have to take an ether afterwards.'_ Xion leapt off the pillar, without missing a beat, she flipped her body around in mid-air and shot a blizzara spell at the manifestations of darkness. As the heartless were shattering one by one, she landed on her hands, got on her feet and kicked the block.

' _But Roxas is still gone,'_ By the time she collected the munny, the heartless had covered the tops of the most of the pillars. _'And the heartless aren't leaving anytime soon, I guess he's stuck up there, and by the look of it, I'm stuck here too.'_

"XION!"

She whirled around and saw Roxas coming at her on a flying carpet with a big, blue Genie behind. He held his hand out and Xion grabbed on.

"Hold on," Roxas said.

Xion pressed her face against his back. "You put your coat back on, huh?"

"Yeah...I'm not gonna get hot since we're on this flying carpet." Xion could hear Roxas' voice struggle to mask his own embarrassment, she smiled, and held him tighter. Though, the tender moment was momentarily broken up by a loud voice yelling at them from behind.

"Well-well-well, do my eyes deceive me? Sora, how have you been old friend?!" Genie boomed.

"Uh...great!"

"Sora?" Roxas asked.

"Just go along with it," Xion whispered, she turned back to Genie. "Hello! It's good to see you again!"

"Isn't it though? So where are your two friends, Donald and Goofy? Those two didn't chicken out, did they?"

"They're...uhhhhhhh, so hey Genie, how have you been?"

"Spec-tac-ular! Carpet and I here were just swinging by to catch up with Al when carpet here put the tassel to the metal and zoomed off. Something about spotting an old friend."

Flying carpet twirled its tassel.

"That friend is me?" Xion asked.

"Actually the both you, weird, right?" Genie jabbed his arm in Roxas' stomach. "Hey, you meet rugman in a bar or somethin'?"

"What's...that?"

OoO

They escaped the cave and entered into the vast desert, now that it was out in the open, flying carpet could pick up its speed to the max.

"So Sora, last time you came here you were lookin' for someone, lemme think...a friend? You find your chum?" Genie asked.

"I did...I found my friend, how about you? Your friend...Aladdin. 'Huh, why did his name just pop out like that?'

"Who knows? When Al and I first met, we were inseparable, but that was nearly a year ago."

"Inseparable?" Roxas asked.

"You bet, that was until Carpet and I took a muuuuch needed vacation and went on a grand tour around the world. We were gettin' worried about our old pal Al so we figured we'd check up on him and play catch up."

"Worried, about what?"

"Anything...everything! His relationship with Jasmine, how Agrabah's been holdin' up, it's natural to worry about friend after you've been away from them so long, isn't that right Sora?"

"Of course. I worry about my friends all the time."

"See, and once I get somethin' on my mind, I can't get it out, and believe me I've tried everything under the sun."

"Well for one, Agrabah is in terrible shape, a huge sandstorm hit recently," Roxas said. "And they won't stop coming."

"What?! The second I leave town and this happens, well, no problem. I'll fix it up a hot arabian minute, a little magic here and there should help!"

"Dunno about that, Aladdin said the people of Agrabah should be the one's to fix their city."

' _When did Aladdin say that? Sounds like he had a bunch of trouble with the sandstorm last time I came.'_ Xion thought.

"Genie's face drooped. "If that's how Al wants it, I'll have to respect his wishes, but he didn't say anything about those sandstorms..." He disappeared.

The flying carpet landed outside of Agrabah. Giving Xion and Roxas one last goodbye (as best as a carpet could) it flew off in search of Aladdin.

"It's too bad we couldn't find any treasure in there," Xion said.

"Not exactly," Roxas whipped out the same gemstone that Xion placed in the headstone earlier. "I took it anyways!"

"Ugh! Roxas! That's why those heartless were filling up the room!" She whacked Roxas upside the head.

Groaning, Roxas rubbed the back of his head. "...it was too good to pass up and you know it."

"We almost died!" She sighed. "...So how much munny do you think it'll sell for?"

"Let's find out~"

"WHOA HOLD UP!" Yelled a raspy voice.

A chubby, black cat came running, well, more like crawling up to them. Exasperated as he was fumed, he attempted to attack Roxas, but he easily knocked him away.

"Hah! Hah! You brats...hah...made me run across the whole god damn desert." Pete muttered.

"What do you want?!" Roxas demanded. "And who are you?!"

"The name's Pete, now gimme that giant blue thing-er, Genie, that was tailing you two tykes around. Or rather, I want that lamp that's controlling him! Where is it, cough it up!"

"Don't have it."

"Hu..h.." Pete collapsed onto the sand.

"Let's RTC before he wakes up,"

Roxas nodded and followed Xion through a dark portal.

OoO

Xion and Roxas emerged at the clock tower of Twilight Town where Axel was waiting.

"Took you guys long enough," Axel said, he handed out ice cream to the two of them. "So...how'd the mission go?"

"Great. I think this is actually gonna work out, thank you guys," Xion said.

"That's good to hear." Axel chomped down on his ice cream. "Where'd you guys go anyway?" He asked with a mouthful of ice cream.

"The city me and you went before with all the sand and stuff uh..."

"Agrabah." Xion said.

"Oh yeah, there was a lot of weird guys there this time around, huh?"

"You mean Genie and Pete? Ok, Pete was a total weirdo, but Genie just seemed really worried about his friend. Though, you can't jump in and do everything for your friends, even if you want to."

"That's right, people need their space," Axel said.

Roxas finished the last of his ice cream and chewed on the stick. "So why did Aladdin and Genie say they were inseparable, kinda getting mixed messages here."

"That's true, it's not like they were joined together or anything."

Xion and Roxas both looked to Axel for an answer.

"I think inseparable has more than just one meaning, y'know, like if you feel really close to someone you can feel inseparable to that person even if you're thousands of miles apart."

"Really? Is that how it is?"

"Yeah, if you're best friends with someone."

"How is it like having a...best friend?"

"I wish I knew, but I don't have any."

"Maybe we'll find out then, later...to know what it feels like to have a best friend."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The floor is...heartless...


	7. Purpose in Meaning

**Day 76**

"I'll buy it for 500 munny, kupo."

"500 munny, is that it?" Roxas shrugged. "Guess we'll just have to talk to another moogle."

"Wait...wait! Uh, I'll triple, no, quadruple the price and I'll throw in a complementary ether! Kupo!"

"That's more like it," He handed the moogle the precious gemstone and giddily accepted the giant bag of munny.

"And that's how you barter!"

"Wow Roxas! That was so cool!" Xion exclaimed.

The moogle held the gemstone up. _'Those idiots don't know the munny I gave them is only worth a fraction of the actual price of the gemstone…'_

"You're going to need a lot more than that." Saïx remarked. He walked over to them clutching a mission report, much to their dismay. "The Organization is tight on munny and seeing how no one else is here, you're going to have to raise the 7,500 munny yourselves."

Roxas took the mission report. "What do we need munny for?"

"It's not my call, it's our leader's orders. I presume to restock on items because currently, we're all out. Either way, you're going to do what I tell you to and without hesitation. Go on now."

Xion waited for Saïx to disappear from the Gray room before turning to Roxas. "So, how do you think we should earn munny, I mean...we can always kill a bunch of heartless."

"I was thinking about that, but it would take a long time. I got it, why don't we do a bunch of odd jobs in Twilight Town, they pay really good!"

"...Ok, yeah! Let's go!"

OoO

Xion and Roxas landed on top a building, they scaled down the sides and roamed the quiet streets of Twilight Town. "What do you wanna do?" Roxas asked as he rested his hands behind his head.

"The job that makes the most munny, of course." She surveyed the area and spotted a giant poster near a small shop. "'Looking for help-will pay 500 munny.'' Xion read aloud.

"That one?" Roxas asked.

Xion nodded, then grabbed his arm and dragged him all the way to the shop. "Hello sir, we're wondering if you'd like some help, we saw the job offer on the poster."

The shop owner rubbed the stubbles on his chin. _'Huh, they're in those black coats, they must be the cult I keep hearing about, well, they seem harmless.'_ "Sure, why not?" He bent down and picked up a huge stack of posters. "You see, my shop hasn't been all that busy lately, so I'm wondering if a little more coverage will put my shop out there you know. Just put these posters all around Twilight Town and I'll pay you both generously."

Xion and Roxas each took a stack of posters.

"We'll be done in no more than two minutes," Roxas said.

"In that case, how about this; I'll bump up your pay if you can do it a minute and a half!"

"Deal!" He looked back to Xion, who wore a certain 'are you sure about this' look, Roxas replied with a 'just trust me' look and Xion sighed.

Xion and Roxas took off zipping through town so fast they appeared to be only back blurs. They tacked the posters onto the sides of buildings, houses, the front of billboards, signs, anywhere people could easily see the posters. As fast as they took off, they returned to the small shop even faster with a crowd of people closely following behind them.

"What was the time?" Roxas asked.

"J-Just under a minute! You kids must be excellent runners...here, how does 1,500 munny for the both of you sound?"

"It sounds great!" Xion took the munny. "Thank you sir."

Xion and Roxas walked past the crowds of people, counting their munny up. "That makes 3,000 munny total. If we add that to the munny we got from the moogle shop, that makes 5,000 munny, already," Xion said.

"So we just need..." He thought for a moment. "2,500 more, hm, if getting munny like that is this easy we should have no problem getting the rest. Though, I kinda don't wanna give up the munny we got from that gemstone on a mission."

"Speaking of, if we got 3,000 munny from just doing that odd job, the amount of munny we got from selling that rare gemstone was nothing in comparison." Xion explained, dissapointed

Roxas shared in her disappointment and let out a long sigh. "We got ripped off again!"

"Roxas, you're the one who did all the 'bartering', you totally got us ripped off!"

"Yeah I did..." He lamented.

"No use in dwelling on it now, at least we'll have comfort in the hope that the moogle probably donated all the loads and loads and loads of money he'll get to charity."

"You're not making me feel any better, y'know."

"—I know what will!" Came a voice from behind.

A woman with a plastic looking smile came up to them with a giant mailbag. "I saw you working for Dan and I was wondering if you could deliver this mail to its respective receipts. They're coupons for my own business actually, so as you can see, I'm terribly busy myself and my main mailman is sick. Well, how about it, I'll pay you each 1,000 munny."

"Sure," Roxas said. "I don't think we'll get it done as soon as the last job we did though."

"Oh, it's no problem, as long as you deliver them."

"Ready to go, Xion?"

"Mm hm."

With that, they sprung forward and delivered the letters via their mailbox, it was a speedy, relatively quick process, however, when they reached the last few letters at the bottom of the bag, they had also reached a stalemate. "...these last few letters we're supposed to deliver belong to Seifer, Rai and Fuu." Xion said, slowing down to stop. "But neither of the letters have addresses."

"What do you mean?" Roxas looked over the letters and it was true, the address line was blank. "Maybe the lady forgot to put it on."

"Proabably, we'll just have to deliver these personally. They shouldn't be too hard to find them."

"You're right, they should be at the sandlot."

They headed to the sandlot, but much like previous encounters, Seifer's gang was nowhere to be found, rather it was Hayner's group filling in for their absence.

"Doesn't look like they're here," Xion said.

"Hey, you two, what're you guys doing here?" Hayner asked, he and his friends went over to them. "By the way, you find your friend, blondie?"

"Yeah, she's right here. This is Xion."

"Huh? Your friend's a girl?" Hayner took a step closer to Xion. "What do you look like under that hood?"

"N-Nothing! N...No one!"

"Hayner, back off." Olette reprimanded.

"Jeez, I was only playing. Anyway, I didn't catch why you're here. To kill more of those monsters, right?"

"Not today, we're actually on the job." He pulled out the three letters. "Do you know where Seifer, Rai and Fuu are?"

"I think I saw them go by the old mansion a while ago, don't think they've come out yet, so you're in luck," Pence said.

"The old mansion?"

Hayner nodded. "Yeah, we'll show you the way!"

Xion and Roxas followed Hayner and his friends through a large tunnel in the back part of town. The tunnel lead into an even larger, lush forest. They combed through the vegetation until they found a beaten pathway littered with discarded trash, in no time, they ended up at an old, abandoned mansion. Like Pence predicted, Seifer and his gang were loitering around the mansion, watching it intently as if it were a game.

"What do you freaks want?" Seifer asked.

"We have mail for you guys," Roxas said.

Seifer stomped up to them and snatched the letters from Roxas' hand and stomped back to Rai and Fuu. Roxas' fingers curled into a fist. "Who does that guy think he is..." He muttered under his breath.

"Don't let it get to you, Seifer's always like that," Hayner said. "Hey! Why are you creeps standing around the old mansion, don't you have anything better to do?!"

"It's none of your goddamn business!" Seifer shot back.

"Yeah, we're just waiting 'round for Vivi to come back, y'know," Rai said.

"Rai! You idiot!" Seifer yelled.

"S-sorry, man!"

"What the heck made a chicken like Vivi go in there anyway?" Hayner asked.

"Dare." Fuu said.

"And he's not coming back any time soon." Seifer made his way away from the rusty gated entrance and back down into the forest.

Hayner glared at Seifer. "Where the hell are you going?"

"Out of this dump."

"You're not even gonna wait for Vivi to see if he's ok or not? Here I thought you couldn't get any more pathetic than you already were."

"You don't know what the hell I'm gonna do!"

"I know you're gonna run away like you always do."

"Heh, then I'll try something different." Seifer punched Hayner flat in the face and he slammed down on the ground.

Wiping, the blood dribbling off his chin, Hayner stood up and tried to throw a punch himself, but Pence and Olette held him back. "Get back here! COWARD!" Hayner yelled.

"Hayner, don't, you're just going to get hurt even more. He's stronger than you." Olette said, softly.

Hayner pulled away from their grasp. "Forget it. Let's get Vivi."

"That's the spirit!"

Hayner faced Roxas and Xion. "We shouldn't all go in at once...I say you two go ahead. If there's any trouble, gives us a holler."

Xion smiled. "We'll be back before you know it. Vivi is a friend of mine!"

The two nobodies walked away from Hayner and his friends and approached the gated entrance.

"Save Vivi," Fuu said.

Roxas kicked the gate open and they ran inside.

OoO

Inside the mansion was dusty and visibly deteriorating. Cobwebs decorated every inch of the creaky, plywood floor and expensive looking furniture.

"Vivi!" Xion hollered.

Roxas used his keyblade to brush away the sticky webs as they traversed further into the old building.

"...nothing, hm..." She noticed small footprints on the floorboard. "Let's follow those, they're probably Vivi's."

"Good call."

Following the footprints lead them to a door on the second floor of the mansion. Xion opened the door and walked in.

"Look at this place," Xion said.

"Uh-huh, it looks like the castle,"

The room was vastly different in comparison to the decayed appearance of the rest of the mission. This room was covered in a coating of pure, milky white paint, the only color in the room was from the drawings scattered across the floor, plastered on wall and spread out on a long table sitting in the center.

Xion picked up one of the drawings. "These people...they look familiar."

Roxas peered over her shoulder. "Those two are Sora and Kairi. I don't know who the other boy is though, but he was there with them all the time."

"This is Sora?" Xion could pick out the deep blue eyes from the drawing, which they both shared, but from what she knew, the brown spiky hair was Sora's.

She held the drawing to Roxas' face. "You look do look a lot like him." Her eyes traced down to the girl with crimson red hair and the same blue eyes as her. "And I look like that girl."

"That's right."

 _'She's really pretty...I'm glad I look like her.'_ Xion suddenly discarded the drawing. "We're getting off track, where's Vivi?"

_Do you require its presence?_

_The presence of a heartless..._

"Yes."

Two dusks rose from the floor holding Vivi, they threw Vivi over to Xion and he clung onto her legs for dear life.

"Xion I'm so glad you're here! Seifer dared me to go inside this place and I got scared and then...and then these two weirdos grabbed because they thought I was a heartless and I didn't know what to do." Vivi dug his face onto Xion's leg. "Take me out of here!"

"Of course, we came here for you."

"What're you dusks doing here anyway?" Roxas asked.

_You aren't the first nobodies to come here_

_This is Naminé's room, but she's absent at the moment_

"Naminé is a nobody like...us?"

_A special type. She currently is residing in Castle Oblivion_

_The dusks melded into the floor, leaving Roxas, Xion, and Vivi to themselves._

_'Castle Oblivion. That's where Axel was for a while.'_

Xion lifted her head up and looked over at Roxas, absorbed in his own thoughts. "Ready to go?"

"Uh...yeah, this place is starting to give me the creeps."

The three of them left the old mansion, Hayner and his group as well as what was left of Seifer's gang were all waiting outside for them by the entrance.

"You really saved him!"

"That was so cool!"

"You guys are so awesome!"

Roxas rubbed the back of his head. "I-It was nothing...!"

"We're glad to help a friend out," Xion said.

Hayner patted Roxas and Xion on the back. "That's good to hear!"

Vivi ran over to Fuu and Rai who both looked relieved.

"Now that I did the dare, you have to give me free ice cream for a week now!"

Rai smiled crookedly. "Oh, that's right, we did promise that, y'know."

"Well, a deal's a deal," Seifer said, walking out from behind one of the trees. "Let's get on with it already."

"S-Seifer?!"

"You were there the whole time, weren't you, y'know."

"Figures."

"R-really?! Seifer, is that true?!"

"Shut it you two! Come on, let's get his damn ice cream already, and if you ever do that again, Vivi, you can count yourself dead!"

"Alright! Won't do it again!"

Hayner crossed his arms while they watched Seifer's gang disappear into the forest. "He's still an ass." He sighed and turned back to Roxas and Xion. "I have to hand it to you though, you're full of surprises."

Olette rolled her eyes. "What Hayner means to say is that we were wrong for doubting you and thinking you were weird."

Pence nodded. "You two are really nice people, cult or not."

With their final words, they could all finally see Xion's face under her hood. Xion smiled at the three friends, each of them pretty surprised to see her face for the first time. "We're happy to help, see you again!" Xion exclaimed.

Xion and Roxas jumped up and landed on top of the mansion's roof. "You see that lady anywhere, Xion?"

"Straight ahead!"

They landed in the middle of Twilight Town and found the lady tending to her store. "We're finished, sorry we took so long," Roxas said.

"No problem. I'm just glad the word is out, here," She gave Xion and Roxas their respective pay. "Why don't you two drop on by some other time, I might have more work for you."

"Ok!"

As they were walking away, Roxas mentally counted the munny they had. "Alright, so with the 2,000 she gave us we're up to 7,000 now. That should be it."

"No, we still need 500 more munny." She reminded. "And if we're keeping the 2,000 we made ourselves, we're still 2,500 off."

"Man, you're right...wait, we're meeting Axel today on the clock tower. Maybe he can help us out."

"That's a good idea!"

OoO

Xion and Roxas approached the ledge, though, Axel wasn't sitting in his usual spot. Roxas plopped down anyways and leaned back on the face of the clock. "He's probably late, that's all."

Xion scooted down next to Roxas. "You know, I think I finally figured out why Seifer and his gang don't have an address on their mail."

"Why's that?"

"They have no homes for anyone to deliver to."

"I guess we're lucky to have homes ourselves..."

"Can you even call the castle a home, no one likes us except for Axel."

"That's true, you think we can find homes ourselves when this is all over?"

"Yeah, let's find somewhere by the beach."

"That's what I was thinking too."

XxXX

"Hey, Saïx, we were able to collect the munny like you asked," Roxas said.

"I only need 500 munny actually. You two were taking too long on your mission, luckily, some of the other members were able to collect the rest of the munny."

"Wha-seriously?! That's awesome!"

Saïx frowned at their smiling faces. "Make that 1,000 munny, you're showing too much enthusiasm."

Roxas, begrudged, forked over the extra munny.

"So what should we spend all this munny on?" Xion asked.

"No idea."

XxXX

**Day 77**

"Roxas, Xion, you're late again," Saïx muttered as they came strolling into the gray room.

Roxas glanced over to Xion and she shook her head in confusion. "Are we supposed to arrive at a certain time?"

"Preferably so, yes. That way I can coordinate your abilities with the specific mission our leader imposes, unfortunately, another member was tasked with your mission. So I'm placing you on guard duty for the day."

"Guard duty?"

"Yes, all you have to do is stand guard outside the castle and kill any threatening figures. Usually Demyx fills in that role, but he has yet to come back from his mission."

Tasked with their 'mission' for the day, Xion and Roxas made their way down the halls of the nobody's castle.

"Guard duty doesn't sound too bad actually," Xion said.

"You won't get bored with doing nothing though?"

"Not really, I used to do nothing for days back when I first came here."

They reached the main entrance and walked outside into the World That Never Was; an empty city with towering skyscrapers. It would've been encased in perpetual darkness if not for the soft light illuminated by Kingdom Hearts, a heart shaped moon and the source of all light, that hung over the city.

"Those first few days you were so quiet then, I really wanted you to talk to me," Roxas said, he leaned back on the white exterior of the castle.

"I know. I wanted to talk to you too, but I couldn't. I just didn't remember how."

"I was like that too, a total zombie, that's what Axel tells me, at least."

"Maybe that's something we all experience as nobodies."

"I can't imagine Axel ever acting like a zombie!"

"Yeah, he's so talkative and...different...from all the other nobodies. Sometimes I wonder why that's the case if we don't have hearts to feel any emotions. Shouldn't we all act the same if we all equally have no hearts?"

"I … I never really thought about that, I mean, we were humans before, right? Humans act differently from each other, right? So maybe that's why we do too."

"If that's true... you think me and you were friends as humans?"

"Nah, something like intense, heated rivals!"

"Rivals, huh? If we were rivals, then it totally be one-sided, I'd so be the stronger one!"

"You give yourself way too much credit, besides you can't even use your keyblade anymore!"

"I don't even need a keyblade to beat cha," She said with a wink.

"Yeah 'cause you'd probabaly cheat with all your crazy magic..." Roxas suddenly grew quiet.

"Roxas?"

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Listen."

There was a low, quiet sound coming from somewhere, just barely audible. Xion closed her eyes and focused on the sound. The offbeat noises flowed together into a soft, solemn tune only for it grow louder and more distinct each passing note. "I know I've heard that music before...somewhere..." Xion murmured.

"Where?"

"I don't know."

"Let's find out."

"But our posts, we're on guard duty."

"It'll be fine, no one's gonna come anytime soon."

"That's true, ok, I'm ready!"

The music directed them away into the inner city, far enough from the castle that it was only a white blur floating in the night sky, but still recognizable. Eventually, they ended up in a corner behind a tall skyscraper where Demyx sat strumming his sitar, he was so absorbed by his own music, their presence went unnoticed.

"This is where Demyx has been the entire time," Roxas said. "Guess he was tired of working, as usual. Should we wake him up or whatever?"

"When he gets like this it's hard to bring him back to earth. Let's just leave him be and hope he wakes up before tomorrow, and if Saïx assigns us to find Demyx, we know where to find him."

Just as they were beginning to turn and go back to their post, an arrow came flying out of seemingly nowhere right at Demyx's head. Demyx, acting purely on instincts, caught the arrow in between his fingers and snapped it in half.

Finally, Demyx stopped strumming his sitar and stood up. "Huh, what're you two doing here?" He asked absent-mindedly. "W-Wait, did Saïx send you find me, I swear I just got lost trying to go to Olympus Coliseum."

"We weren't sent to find you," Xion said.

"Oh, then um...forget what I said!"

"I get it, you must not want to go to Olympus Coliseum because you don't like fighting," Roxas said.

"Bingo! Now it's my turn to ask questions."

"Uh, sure."

"WHY THE HELL WERE YOU GUYS TRYING TO KILL ME?!"

"—They weren't."

Xigbar appeared beside Demyx holding an arrow-gun to his temple. "And no one's trying to kill you, idiot. A little fun never hurt anyone."

Demyx pushed the arrowgun away from his head as if it were nothing. "Remind me to never play any of your games any time soon. Like, shouldn't you be on a mission?"

"Whoa. That's a loaded question coming from you, and I came back from my mission wondering where oh where has our little Demyx gone." Xigbar pointed his arrowgun at Demyx. "Oh look. He's here," He said viciously.

Oblivious to Xigbar's threat, Demyx remained casual. "Uh huh...so what is this about?"

"It's nothing 'personal' personal, I just wanna test your strength out some."

"If you're looking for a fight, you got the wrong guy, but Olympus Coliseum is always open."

"As if, it's not like I'm fighting you. More like...helping you become a dusk."

"A dusk? Listen, I don't really wanna fight you or anything, we're already short five members. I wouldn't want you to be the sixth."

"Heh. Cute." Xigbar disappeared and reappeared standing upside down on thin air. He let his trigger happy finger loose and a barrage of arrows spiraled towards Demyx.

Demyx held his sitar out in front him and plucked at the strings. "If that 's how it is, sure sucks to be you!" A giant tidal formed in front of Demyx like a shield and swallowed the incoming arrows, its next target was Xigbar.

Xion, mesmerized by their encounter, quickly snapped out if when she realized they would get caught in the crossfire. She grabbed Roxas by the hand, and pulled him all the way to top of a giant skyscraper where they could safely watch the battle unfold.

"Xion...should we do something?"

"What can we do? Let's get back to our post before..."

The sound of footsteps approaching behind them stopped them from making any sudden movements. "I hope you have a good reason..." His cold voice froze them in place. Saïx bent down to their level. "...as to why you disobeyed my orders."

"There's no time to explain!" Roxas sputtered out. "Xigbar and Demyx are trying to kill each other down there!"

Without another word, Saïx summoned his own weapon, a giant claymore nearly the same size as his own body, and he leapt off the building.

Xion and Roxas breathed a sigh of relief, they peered over the edge and saw that Saïx was successful in breaking the two up. Once everything was cleared, they tried to listen in as best they could to their conversation.

"Was that necessary, Xigbar? Why do you feel the need to throw your weight around to the lesser members," Saïx said.

"What?! Lesser?! I'm one of the most vital members to the Organization!"

"Vital? As if. Now that we lost like half our members, the whole seeker of darkness thing we were gunning for is kinda in the dump. And by kinda, I mean, we should be putting out flyers pretty soon if boss man wants his goddamn yin yang world or whatever he goes on about...unless there's a plan b in mind."

"Wait...seeker of darkness? What the heck is that?" Demyx asked.

"It's our secondary objective. Our primary one is to complete Kingdom Hearts, but we cannot complete the secondary objective without completing the primary objective. As is, we need as many members as possible to do so." Saïx explained.

"You mean enough competent members. Demyx here doesn't do anything, no need to waste a good coat on his back."

"I'm so lost, you guys aren't makin' any sense can we just get to the part where I go back to playing my sitar!"

"You're going to go on your mission and you're going to complete each of your missions from here on out diligently," Saïx stated. "And Xigbar, if you try a stunt like this again, we'll just have to find another husk suitable for our secondary objective."

"Oooooh really now? Like who?"

"It doesn't matter, as long as I become whole again, nothing else is important."

The rest of the conversation was inaudible due to the sudden, and abrupt downpour. Eventually, they went their separated ways with Demyx being dragged back to the castle while Roxas and Xion dwelled on top of the skyscraper a little while longer.

"Did you understand a thing they were saying?" Roxas asked.

"Not really, but from what I can tell, after we complete Kingdom Hearts, we're not done yet."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: What did Xemnas want with all that munny anyway?
> 
> Saïx: Sir...was there a reason you demanded 7,500 munny?
> 
> Xemnas: There was
> 
> Saïx: What on earth could a nobody possibly need?
> 
> Xemnas: To keep these lights on. This perpetual light we're always in is only possible because I pay the electricity bill. If you had any sense of responsibility you would contribute just a little so we wouldn't have to come to this conclusion


	8. Meaning in Purpose

**Day 78**

Xion and Roxas landed on a rose colored bridge that led straight into a large, magnificent castle. "I've never been here before..." Xion said, star struck by the decayed beauty of the castle.

"I have and it's a lot cooler inside than it is on the out!"

"I'm sure it is, but we can't just walk through the front door. We're on a recon mission, that means we should try our best not to be seen by anyone."

"I guess."

"You guess?"

"I mean, you kinda have a bad habit of attracting people wherever you go and it's not like we'll have to worry about anyone seeing us anyway, the castle is pretty empty."

"That huge place can't be completely empty." She crossed her arms, then added, "And I don't have a bad habit of attracting people!"

 _'Doesn't she realize she has a bad track record?'_ "Uh, well, now that I think about..." He shook his head. "Never mind."

"Hm, what is it?"

"See, last time I was here, we heard a huge a sound, like an animal, a big one at that. It sounds kinda silly though, so I wouldn't believe it."

"A big animal?" She imagined what kind of animal could be prowling around. Whatever it was, she was excited to find out, being a huge animal lover herself. "What type of animal I wonder."

"Wanna find out?"

"Since we're here~"

Xion and Roxas jumped onto one of the many overarching balconies and burst through the ajar, stained glass window. As pretty as the castle was outside, inside was stunning, albeit a bit messy with the ornate looking wallpaper and furniture having claw marks on them and tufts of fur scattered gingerly across the velvet carpet.

"You're right about some type of animal being here," Xion said.

"It could be the work of heartless too, this castle reeks of them."

"Maybe the heartless and the animal were fighting here?"

"Must be. Come on, let's see what else we can find."

Leaving the room, they entered a long, winding entrance hall adorned with suits of armor on each side and a large window depicting the moonlit forest outside.

"Look there's more gnashes on the wall," Xion said.

"Yeah, the fight must of followed here too."

At the other side of the hall, there was another door, Roxas tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge.

"You're not going to force me to come out and eat!" Came a soft voice from the other side of the door.

Roxas let go immediately and backed away from the door. "Someone's definitely here." He whispered hoarsely.

Xion nodded. "Let's get away from here and go downstairs."

On their way down the stairs, they noticed two twin statues standing opposite from each other at the top of the steps. "There's a statue like this somewhere and I used it to open up a secret passage," Roxas said, poking its head, even the head was covered in claw marks as well as a thin layer of dust.

"Wow, what made you think to do that?"

"I have no idea." He admitted. "Things just kinda clicked into place."

"—the master is in a quite unfortunate mood." A voice from downstairs mused. Following the voice was a harsh sound, like the sound of brass hitting a hard surface.

"You heard that too, right?" Xion asked.

"Yeah, sure did." Roxas peered around the statue.

"Whow, that's so cool!"

"Quiet down, Roxas."

"No, you gotta see this!"

Xion gave in and saw a candelabra walking past the staircase.

"If only monsieur would leave his chamber." Said Lumiere, a candelabra.

"Oh my gosh! That is cool!"

"See what I was talking about? You know that candelabra was talking about a master too, did you hear?"

"Mm hm, that means he must be one of the servants."

"So we found the servants, let's find the master already, we might even find more clues about this animal!"

"GAAAAARGH!"

The thundering roar shook the halls and rung throughout the entire castle. At that moment Xion was suddenly second guessing any further exploration in the rest of the castle. Especially with a big animal running around that started seeming more and more like a scary monster in her head than anything else.

"Man, that was freaky." Roxas muttered.

"Are you sure we should go further...I mean, I think we've found enough."

"I don't think Saïx is gonna be too excited when we tell him all we found was a talking candelabra, we should find out as much as we can about this master. There's a staircase by the first room we came in, wanna go snoop down there?"

"I ..um...well…" Xion hated that she was stammering, but there was no way she could ever tell Roxas she was freaked out by the animal lurking around. "S...sure!" She finally spit out.

"Wait, Xion, are you ok? You look pale."

"I do?" Xion smirked. "I can't be anymore paler than you!"

"Geez, you're never gonna let that go."

"How could I? Come on, let's get this over with already."

They ran back down the hallway and down a set of stairs that opened into a large, yet hollow tiled room. There were doors scattered across, each leading to different rooms and another set of stairs spiraling up to a slightly cracked open door. Scratch marks were visible all over the place on nearly every piece of furniture and square tile.

Roxas scratched his head. "The animal's been here too? We'll have more to report than just finding out who the master is, won't we?"

"G-great...I...I'm so...excited." Her voice was growing more and more fragile each passing word she spoke. It would only be a matter of time before Roxas caught on.

Roxas bent down, noticing smudges on the floor. "Footprints?" His eyes followed the blobs to the door on top of the steps. "Over there, huh." He went on all the way up the steps only to realize Xion hadn't budged from the spot they were originally standing.

"I'll...keep watch."

Xion watched Roxas quickly peep inside the room, listen in for a while, then tiptoe back down the stairs.

"So there's a huge, furry, monster inside. He says this castle is his so I think..."

"He's the master of this castle."

"Right. He was also fuming about some girl named Belle not wanting to eat dinner with him and was huddled over this rose in a glass case."

"...I get it now. The master is a beast...this is his castle...that make this place Beast's castle. A beast as a master, and a candelabra as a servant, there must be quite a story surrounding this place."

"Definitely. They all act like humans too, maybe they're like us and lost something, but now they're trying to get it back."

"Your guess is as good as mine. So...finally ready to RTC?"

"RAAAAAARGH!"

The loud roar, this time, caught Xion off guard and she collapsed on the ground without warning.

XxXX

"...ugh."

When Xion opened her eyes again, she found herself back in her room. Though she wasn't alone, Roxas was there too, looking over her with worry spread across his face. "Xion! I'm so glad you're awake!" Roxas exclaimed.

"I...was asleep?" She mumbled, still a little drowsy.

"I think so." Roxas sat down on the foot of Xion's bed. "You suddenly collapsed in Beast's castle so I took you all the way here to your room. What happened anyway, you just suddenly got sick after Beast..."

Roxas looked at Xion, who nervously looked the other way.

"Oh I get it, you were scared of the beast, weren't you?" He asked, smirking.

"N-No!"

"Yeah right. Your face tells me you were!"

Xion threw her pillow at Roxas' face and slid off her bed. "I guess I was a little, but not anymore. Anyways, now that we're back here a little earlier than usual, what do you wanna do with all this free time?" She asked, changing the subject.

"We can go explore the castle."

"Sure."

Xion and Roxas moved out her room and into the empty halls, the steady tune of Demyx's sitar could be heard seething itself into the hallway. They decided to walk further down the hallway until his music was a mere memory and quietness once again filled the halls.

"Uh, yeah, I think Axel's room is down here," Roxas said.

"Let's go in, maybe he's there!"

Before they could take another step, footsteps echoed down the hall. Xion and Roxas took a peek over the corridor and saw Xemnas walking by with a huge stack of cream colored paper. Following him closely behind was Saïx, picking up the papers flying off the stack.

"Lord Xemnas, what do you need these documents for, again?" Saïx bent down to pick up another discarded paper. "They're just various reports over heartless the Organization's made."

"Precisely. I want to study the behavior of these heartless made by the accounts of a nobody."

"Why is that?" He caught a paper in midair. "Is there a greater purpose?"

"Perhaps."

_'This must be something Xemnas did frequently as a human. Studying darkness. Even our Lord Xemnas recalls his memories when he was complete.'_

Xemnas and Saïx turned around the corner and were heading down their way, quickly, they went into the room behind them and closed the door.

"May I help you?" Luxord asked automatically, his attention was given to the laptop out in front of him.

"No, sorry to barge in, we had no idea someone was in here," Xion said.

"Is that so?" Luxord replied.

"What're you doing?" Roxas asked.

"Poker."

Xion and Roxas glanced at each other, then went around Luxord's bed to see for themselves and in fact he was playing a card game on the computer.

"A marvelous contraption, is it not," Luxord said after a series of clicks and random keyboard presses. "I got bored of beating every member so I decided this was the next best alternative. Unfortunately...I have yet to best the computer."

Xion studied the computer screen. "Why do you like playing cards so much?"

"It reminds me of my times as a poker dealer when I was human."

"When you were human..." Roxas mused to himself. 'Do I do things subconsciously too cause I remember when I was human?'

"Can I try, it looks fun," Xion said.

"If you wish to, however, it's nigh impossible to beat this computer."

Xion got on the bed, it took a moment for her to process the game and within a few well placed keystrokes and clicks, a 'YOU WIN' message popped up on the screen. She stood back and let Luxord blankly stare at the screen.

"H-How...did you...?"

"It's not that hard to get the hang of it," She said.

"How uncanny."

"I hope you can win by yourself in the future," She said cheerily, then turned to Roxas who was still gaping at the computer screen. "They should be gone by now, let's go to Axel now!"

"O-Ok!"

They left Luxord's room and approached the door to Axel's room, opening it, they realized Axel was fast asleep on his bed. His room, meanwhile, was a complete mess. Burn marks scorched the white room, books and tattered pieces of paper were tossed aside on the floor, his chakrams laid flat to the side with reminiscences of failed magic spells surrounding the twin weapons.

Xion bent down to pick up one of the discarded papers while Roxas was drawn towards the chakrams. "Castle Oblivion..." She read to herself. "Naminé is gone without a trace. Saïx is hysterical about it, says something about her messing everything up, but I don't see the big deal. She's helping us out, isn't she? I mean, searching and detaining her seems kinda icky."

Xion picked up another paper, this one looked relatively recent. "So... Roxas had been annoying me about Xion for days now, and I didn't understand why. Xion was well...she was No. XIV, the one member who had their hood up 24/7. How could anyone get so close to someone like that?"

She flipped to the back. "Suddenly, she takes her hood off and I see her face for the first time. She looks just like Naminé from CO.. For the longest time, I've heard only rumors about her, but now that I see the real Xion, I'm glad to be friends with her. I hope she doesn't still think I'm a weirdo, unless...am I?"

"Axel." Xion murmured, setting the paper back down on the floor. She could feel herself smiling. "...thank you."

"Xion, check this out!"

"Hm?"

Xion walked over to Roxas, he was pointing at Axel's face which was crudely drawn on with thick black marker. "H-He looks just like Saïx!" She covered her mouth to keep from laughing too loudly.

"I know! Wait 'till Axel sees himself!"

*creek

The door unexpectedly swung open. "Axel," Saïx said, without looking up, he walked towards the bed with a piece of paper in hand. Roxas and Xion quickly hid behind the bed while their presence went unnoticed. "...Lord Xemnas has a few questions about your-" He stopped.

A large, black X was scribbled across Axel's forehead as well as two thick lines in place for eyebrows. Saïx sighed. "Is this your idea of a joke? Honestly, I'm not sure how we ever became friends in the first place, this is exactly the type of prank you used to pull in...and look at me when I'm talking to you."

"...When is he gonna realize he's asleep?" Roxas whispered.

Xion shrugged.

"..."

"If you want to ignore me, that's fine. Just for your insolence, I'm assigning you on several back to back missions, maybe then you'll realize every mission is important for us to become human again."

Hearing a click coming from the door, Xion and Roxas poked their heads over the bed to make sure the blue haired nobody was gone for good.

"Saïx talks about Axel as if they were good friends," Xion said, standing up. "Maybe they were as humans, but I can't imagine Saïx ever being 'friendly'."

"I know, he has a lot of baggage towards Axel too. I can't believe Axel didn't wake up during that big lecture either, he's gonna be in for it when he wakes up."

"Well, the least we can do is wipe this off his face." Xion went ahead to rub the black marker off his face. "...huh..." She rubbed harder.

"Roxas...I think we have a problem."

"What?"

"The marker's not coming off!"

"Are you serious?! Axel's gonna lose it!"

"I got it, Roxas, get some water!"

"Ok, I'll be right back!"

Xion glimpsed at Axel's sleeping face. "So I look like Naminé to you...I want to meet her one day in Castle Oblivion. If you'll show me, that is."

The door flipped open and Roxas ran in with a bucket of water. Roxas scooped some water up and attempted to pour it onto Axel's face, but he rolled over to the far side of the bed before the water could splash onto him.

"You know...water and fire don't mix." Axel mumbled.

"A-Axel! You're awake?!" Roxas yelled.

"I am now." He got up and yawned. "What happened?"

"You mean...everything that happened...you didn't hear?" Xion asked.

"Nope. My mind shuts off when I'm asleep, that's the beauty of it, don't gotta hear a thing!"

"Uh...that's goood..." Roxas glanced at Xion who shook her head. "Nothing really that important happened."

"So why'd you two knuckleheads try and throw water on my head? Were you trying to play a prank on me?"

"That's...exactly it! Yep, we'd thought it be really funny to see the look on your face," Xion elaborated.

"Ha! Too bad I woke up! You guys don't even know half of what it takes to be a full-fleshed prankster!" His eyes fell onto the floor where the papers were scattered. "What's that doing down there?" He got off his bed and picked up the papers one by one.

"What's so important about those papers?" Roxas asked.

"It's not just any paper, it's top secret stuff you guys can't read."

"Why's that?" Xion asked innocently.

"It's stuff reserved for us higher up nobodies, you're both still just newbies, you won't understand it."

"If you say so...hey, now that we're all here, why don't we go get some ice cream? I'll buy!"

"Now that sounds like a plan!"

"Sure does, it's been one hell of a long day!"

"Axel, you were asleep for most of the day," Xion said.

"No I haven't, I was taking my six hour power nap, before that I was at Olympus Coliseum with Demyx doing recon. He complained the entire time about having to work right after he was threatened by Xigbar or something, it was a total drag."

"Oh yeah, that's right. Demyx and Xigbar got into this big fight because Xigbar wanted to turn Demyx into a dusk since he was so lazy," Roxas said.

"Huh, really, why am I not surprised? It was only a matter of time before Xigbar took things too far, as usual. The guy's probably bored out of his mind if he's looking to fight Demyx."

"He and Saïx were also talking about some kind of 'secondary objective', apparently once we complete kingdom hearts, there's an extra step," Xion said.

"Like I care. Once we become people again, I'm hightailing out of here."

"—hey, Axel, hold up." Xigbar's voice, no doubt, he had such a distinct accent.

The three stopped walking and turned to unsurprisingly see Xigbar's smirking face. He held up a crumbled paper. Report paper. "Saïx wants me and you to go to Agrabah asap for-" He paused when he saw Axel's face.

Xigbar started cracking up. "Man, look at your face!"

"My face?" He looked over to Roxas and Xion who avoided his gaze. He shook his head and walked in his room.

"Did one of you two do that to him?" Xigbar asked.

"Nope."

"Then it was probably those dusks, wasn't the first time this happened. Ha, my day just keeps getting better."

"AAAAAAAH!"

They all turned their attention to the Axel's room where the scream erupted from. Axel came back out shortly, his face dripping wet with black ink. "So...where were we...Xigbar...you needed me for something, right?"

 _'He's just gonna try and play this off.'_ "...We have a mission in Agrabah to wrangle up a bunch of nobodies that got out on the loose."

"Are you kidding me?! I just came back from a mission!"

"Then don't come. Go back to sleep and maybe the little monsters will make you look like me, huh? Don't think that's a bad idea actually."

"You talk too much." Axel took the report from Xigbar's hand and walked past him. "Let's do this damn mission."

"Change of heart already?"

"Funny." Axel shot back.

Xion and Roxas watched them disappear back down the hallway.

"Axel is still really weird." Xion muttered to herself.

"So...What should we do now?" Roxas asked.

"We'll wait for him in Twilight Town, come on!"

XxXX

Xion and Roxas waited on the ledge at the clock tower, their legs dangling above high up in the sky. After a while of thinking to herself, Xion looked over to Roxas. "You know...I don't think Axel is..."

Roxas' his head was hanging down, he'd already dozed off. "Roxas...you hopeless sleepyhead."

Xion felt herself get tired as well, and soon, she fell asleep along with him.

XxXX

**Day 79**

"..."

"Huh?" She felt around. "I'm back in my bed?"

There was a note lying at the foot of her bed, she picked it up. "Sorry I was late." Xion read, she placed the note on top of her bookshelf and left her room. _'There's always next time, don't worry.'_

Entering the Gray room, she found everyone in their usual spots, Saïx standing near the entrance with a stack of mission reports, Roxas hustling with the moogle, Demyx sitting in the corner with his sitar and Luxord playing solitaire on the back table. Xigbar and Xaldin were also there, hunching over a computer screen neither of them had any idea how to use. Strangely enough, though, Axel was nowhere to be seen.

Xion walked over to Roxas first as he was piling up on shopping bags. "Morning!" She greeted.

"Morning. Look at this, I just bought myself a lifetime supply of elixirs and magic spells!"

"You did? How much did it cost?"

"Just about all my share from the munny we made, but all of this stuff right here would've cost double than what I paid for, there's a half off sale going on right now."

"Really?" She stopped herself from going any closer to the moogle shop. "Uh...you know I better not, hey, so have you seen Axel lately?"

"No. I asked Xigbar and he said Saïx sent him another mission. I guess he was serious about sending Axel on a ton of missions as punishment."

"How long do you think until Axel snaps?"

"Who knows. I mean, if these missions are so important, I'm not sure why Saïx never goes on one. Or our leader for that matter, seems kinda lazy on their part."

"Xion...Roxas." Unannounced, Saïx appeared behind them and handed out two crumbled pieces of paper. "Don't think you're getting out of doing work, there's still much for you two keyblade wielders to accomplish."

Roxas skimmed over the mission details. "Back to Beast's castle, oh, it's a report this time? Over...the master of the castle, w-we don't have to fight the master or anything r-right?"

"I prefer you don't, lest you want to die. There's an infestation of heartless in the castle for , so you should be able to gauge what this 'master' is capable of. While you're at it, collect 30 hearts as well. Go now, reports don't write themselves."

Xion created a dark portal and they went through, they ended up in a vacant room of Beast's Castle. The same room with the glass encased rose the Beast was hunched over. Xion and Roxas walked over to the rose, it was the only object in the room left untouched by claw marks or tufts of fur, everything else was thrashed.

"This rose must be precious to the master," Xion said.

"Yeah, let's not stay in here too long or we'll end up like the rest of the furniture."

"Got it. So do you wanna do the report this time?"

"Huh, me? You're the one who's good at writing reports...wait, you aren't still scared of the beast, are you?" Roxas asked with a smug smile.

"N-no! That's not it at all! Fine, I'll do the report!" Xion manifested a sheet of appear and a pen. "You ready? Let's go find that beast!"

They walked out of the room and traversed down and up two cases of stairs where they then entered the long hallway.

"M-Master, you have to do something!" Inquired a voice coming from down the stairs. "The poor girl will starve at this rate!"

"Wow, it's a clock this time," Xion said. She watched curiously as a stout grandfather clock hopped its way across the tiled floors.

Roxas nodded in agreement. "First the candelabra, now a walking, talking clock, this place gets weirder by the day."

Beast followed after Cogsworth, the clock. "I left her food by the door." He muttered.

"B-but those are mere table scraps."

"And she still won't eat it!"

*stomp

*stomp

*stomp

"If she wants to starve then she can starve for all I care!”

"You certainly don't mean that...sire..."

Xion felt her heart drop wits every large stomp that echoed throughout the halls as the beast ascended each step. Regardless, not wanting to spark any more teasing from Roxas, she took out her pen and paper, ready to write the report.

"Looks like we already found 'em," Roxas said, he turned back to Xion. "Don't worry," He said softly.

Xion and Roxas disappeared into the shadows while Beast marched down the hallway, anger and rage writhing from his body. Several heartless jumped from the shadows and went into attack him. He threw his arms back and slashed through the heartless.

"There will be no heartless in my castle!" Beast yelled as he ripped through another animate shadow.

Xion quickly began jotting the interaction down. _'...the master of this castle is no doubt a giant beast. The beast is huge, and ferocious, covered with fur and tattered clothes. He makes quick work with the heartless and is violent in confronting them, possibly out of frustration.'_

Despite the beast's best efforts, eventually, the heartless reappeared since his own powers, although powerful, could never free a heart. With the heartless gnawing his stamina away, he grew tired of fighting back and stomped back down the stairs that would lead to his bedroom, Roxas took this as a chance to clear out the heartless himself.

Xion followed and stepped out from the shadows. "That covers the report."

Roxas slashed one last heartless. "-And that covers the hearts we need to collect. 31 is a good number, isn't it?"

"Sure. So let's RTC."

"Mmm, what's that over there?" Cogsworth asked.

Roxas and Xion ducked down behind the banister.

"How peculiar. I suppose I was just seeing things again."

Not wasting any more time, they slipped into a dark portal, leaving Beast's castle and returning their own castle. The Castle That Never Was.

"Whew. That was close," Xion said.

"Yeah, that clock was another one of the master's servants, wasn't it?"

"Mm hm."

"Just like how we're servants to Xemnas."

"I...I wouldn't call us that, but where are you going with this?"

"Well, if there were heartless in our castle, Xemnas would send us to destroy them, but in that other castle, the master is the one who is doing the work. It's kinda weird how the situation is flipped, I thought how it works here, is how it works everywhere."

"Maybe it's only in some places, like in Wonderland, the Queen of Hearts has subjects that do stuff for her."

"That's true—"

"What're you two stalling around there for?" Saïx asked. "You have the report and collected 30 hearts I presume?"

"It's all on here." Xion handed Saïx the report.

"Hey, Saïx," Roxas said. "How come Xemnas doesn't do missions like everyone else?"

"He's our leader. It's as simple as that. Leader's have subjects to do the lesser work for them, and that's what you do."

"Then what does Xemnas do?"

"That's really none of your concern."

"Sounds like you don't know either."

He sighed. "If it gives you any closure, Xemnas spends most of his time studying the darkness and Kingdom Hearts. Whatever else he does is beyond my knowledge."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bloopers
> 
> *Roxas accidentally pours the entire bucket on Axel and he melts like the wicked witch*
> 
> Roxas: FUCK
> 
> Xion: Shit, Roxas!
> 
> Roxas: I didn't know! Now what?!
> 
> Xion: well at least we don't have to worry about waking him up
> 
> Roxas: Yeah...wanna get ice cream
> 
> Xion: No, I'm actually kinda messed up from seeing that...oh my god...


	9. Light Within Darkness

**Day 94**

Xion got up out of bed and left her room. 'Being partners with Roxas has been getting along fine, I don't know what I was so worried about...' She met Roxas waiting outside of her room along with...Saïx.

"Lord Xemnas had summoned us." Saïx uttered.

Roxas nodded silently and beckoned her to go with them.

OoO

Organization XIII gathered upon the Altar of Naught where the light of Kingdom Hearts shone the brightest. Xemnas stood on the ledge with his arms raised to the heart shaped moon.

"The time has arrived," Xemnas announced. "Look to the skies!"

"There hangs the hearts of all hearts—Kingdom Hearts—shining down on us at last! See the countless hearts that have gathered? Hearts full of rage...hate...sadness...and bliss. There in the sky hangs the promise of a new world. My friends! Remember why we have organized—all the things we hope to achieve! The strength of the human heart is vast. Soon though...we will have gained power over it! Never again will it have power over us!"

Xemnas turned to the Organization members who were marveling at the fruit of their efforts. "Do not stray off the path I've given, for soon, you will each regain what you've lost. That is all." He walked past the members and down the steps, everyone else followed suit.

Roxas went up to Xion as she was making her way down the steps. "All those hearts we've been collecting really did pay off!"

"I know. I feel like I'm a part of something larger."

They entered the Gray Room as the nobodies were getting settled down. They saw Axel lounging around on the sofa and ran over to him. "Axel! You're here, we never see you in the Gray Room!" Roxas exclaimed.

"Saïx must really be working you hard." Xion added.

"He sure is. I think he's lighting up the load now, so that's cool."

"You're really not as upset about it as I'd thought you'd be."

Axel kicked his legs back on the seat and rolled his head back. "No use in getting upset. When you tick the guy off, you don't wanna be anyyyywhere near him. Back in the day, when me and him first 'joined' the organization, he was a completely different person. Got mad at everyone and nearly destroyed half the castle in a fight with Xigbar."

"Whoa really?"

"Absolutely not. Stop telling these kids your absurd lies." Saïx gave the three nobodies their respective missions.

Axel groaned. "When are you gonna lay off the missions already?"

"You heard Lord Xemnas, don't stray off the path he's given us, and that includes doing missions."

"Whatever you say." Axel got up, after reading the paper, he crumbled it up and threw it on the floor. "Wonderland again...so, where are you guys going?"

Xion and Roxas looked at their own reports. "Beast's castle...we haven't been there in about a week, right?" Xion said.

"Yeah, I wonder how things are catchin' up there?"

"Beast's castle..." Axel muttered. "Ooooh that old castle with the little dancing tea cups?"

"That's the one, but we haven't seen any tea cups yet."

"Maybe you will this time."

"I hope so, um, ice cream later on?"

"Of course. You two play nice now on your mission, alright?"

They walked away from Axel and into the depths of darkness where they landed on the balcony of Beast's castle. The world was covered in a blanket of snow and surrounded by howling, bitter winds.

"Things sure did change," Roxas said. "Let's get inside, it's pretty cold."

"Hold on, look at that!" Xion pointed at a young woman running across the snow covered bridge.

"Is that the same lady who yelled at us the first time we came here?"

"I'm sure of it."

Soon, Beast came padding after her.

"Now that he's going too, this is the best time to kill those neoshadows."

Xion and Roxas ran inside, instantaneously, a gang of heartless dragged themselves from the darkness. Among them, a few neoshadows were thrown into the mix. Roxas readied his keyblade and Xion readied a spell.

"Magnera!" Xion yelled.

The heartless clumped together, Roxas lit his keyblade on fire and threw it at the heartless. The keyblade circled around , killing most of them upon impact, then finished with a burst of flames before returning to Roxas' hand.

"That was awesome! Look how much you've improved!" Xion praised.

Roxas rubbed the back of his head. "It was nothing...I mean, look at you, magnera?! I just learned how to use magnet."

"I've had some practice."

"Oh, that's right, you go to Vivi a lot after we have ice cream. Is he still getting in trouble for looking like a heartless?"

"Not lately."

"That's good to hear, now let's find a real heartless to slay."

"...There's a few heartless near downstairs." Xion grabbed Roxas' arm before he could jump down. "You can't go down yet," She motioned to the objects pacing around the front door. The clock and candelabra where there, to be expected, but this time there was an adorned serving cart with a bouncy teacup and stationary teapot on the top.

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! If master doesn't return with Belle, that'll perhaps be our last chance at being human," Cogsworth muttered.

"Relax, after our last number in the dining hall, I am quite surprised she didn't stay," Lumiere said.

Mrs. Potts, the teapot, jumped out of the cart and onto the floor. "If master isn't kind enough, no amount of singing will ever fix that. It's important he correct that temper of his if he and Belle do come back."

"And then we can be people again, mama?" Chip, the teacup, asked.

"That all depends on if they could ever learn to love each other. We can only hope."

Xion and Roxas looked back up at each other. "That must be the teacup Axel was talking about," Xion said. "It's so cute!"

"Man, I wish we could talk to them or something, I wanna find out what's going on."

"Me too, but for now we have to stay out of sight or we'll mess everything up for them."

Just then, several neoshadows surrounded the animate objects. With nowhere to go, they screamed in panic.

Roxas' keyblade came to his hand. "What do we do now?! If we fight them, we're gonna get caught for sure!"

"..." Xion thought for a moment. "I'm going to cast Stopga on everyone except you and I. You have 35 seconds to clear them out and get out of their sight, is that enough?"

"Yeah."

"Alright. I'm counting on you!" She pointed her finger at them. "Stopga!"

Seconds before the neoshadows could jump onto the objects, everything and everyone froze in time. Roxas, wasting no time himself, bounded from the top floor to the bottom. He hacked away at the neoshadows making sure not to hit the objects.

As he was about to finish off the last neoshadows, several more crawled out of the ground.

*Click

"Damn it." Roxas muttered, he ran behind a tall banister and the front door opened with Belle and Beast staggering in.

 _'Oh great. Perfect timing.'_ Xion drank an ether she had stored inside her coat and re-casted a second Stopga spell. While Belle and Beast froze in time, the objects were thawed out of time.

Seeing more neoshadows prowling by, the objects boarded the serving cart and rolled out of the entrance hall. Roxas went ahead and began slaying the neoshadows one by one, as fast as he could.

 _'He's not going to finish in time!'_ Xion thought, perching herself on top of the banister. "Roxas, I'm coming, pull back!" She flipped off the railing and held her hand out while in mid-air. Roxas grabbed her hand and she promptly threw him on the opposite banister.

Xion landed on the wall and Roxas pulled her up. The Stopga spell wore off on Beast and Belle the second they were able to land on the banister and the two found themselves ganged up by three neoshadows. Beast attempted to protect Belle, but he was in no condition to fight a second battle.

"What's going on?! What are those things?!" Belle cried.

"It doesn't matter because they're not welcome!" Beast yelled, lunging for one of the neoshadows.

"Do another Stopga spell!" Roxas urged.

"I can't, I ran out of ethers!"

"You only brought one ether?!"

"I didn't think I would need more than one ether, but I miscalculated how much magic Stopga would take...you have an ether, don't you?!"

"N-No! I didn't think I would even need to use magic that much!" He held his keyblade out. "I'll just do it from here!"

He threw his keyblade and it slashed through only one of the neoshadows. "Crap, that was lousy aim!"

"Don't worry," Xion angled her finger at the second neoshadow that was closing in on Belle. "Fire!" The fire spiraled towards the neoshadow, but it quickly dodged it. _'Those things are getting on my nerves.'_

Belle, acting quickly, grabbed an umbrella from the rack by the door and stabbed the neoshadow through its chest. It staggered backwards and Roxas finished the job with a clear shot at its head.

Roxas caught the keyblade in his hand. "The last one is on the beast."

"If we attack it, we'll hurt him too, let's hope he can handle it!"

Beast and the neoshadow tumbled across the floor and crashed into one of the columns. "Beast!" Belle yelled. "You have to beat that thing!"

"I'm trying-GAARGH!" Beast threw the neoshadow off him and it slid across the floor, Roxas threw his keyblade at it and its heart dispersed into the air.

"What just..." Bella shook her head, then grabbed onto Beast before he could collapse on the ground. "Come on, I'll nurse you back to health and..." She paused. "Thank you."

They disappeared down the hallway.

"That beast really isn't that scary after all," Xion said, smiling.

"Got over your fear already? Guess I can't scare you."

"Roxas, you're such a jerk!"

"I was just kidding!"

"Somehow, I doubt it." She opened a dark portal and together, they walked straight into Twilight Town where Axel was waiting.

OoO

Axel greeted Roxas and Xion's presence with a smile and two ice cream bars. "What's up? How'd work go today?" He asked.

"So far so good!" Roxas sat down on the ledge and got his ice cream, he took a second to inspect it to make sure Axel didn't try anything, then bit down on the creamy confection.

Xion followed suit. "Well, today's mission was...uh...interesting. I don't remember Neoshadows being so annoying."

"We were just in a bad place, that's all," He turned to Axel. "You see, we had to fight the heartless without being caught, but they decided to place themselves out in the open so it was a bunch of back and forth. We only had one ether on us too."

"Man, that does sound annoying! Glad my mission was in Wonderland, the heartless there are easy to mow down, it's just too bad they kept on coming back. I did almost get lost in the woods again, which would've sucked, but these two weirdos helped me out. Twinkle dee and dum, something like that."

"You got help from them? So how come we're allowed to interact with people in some worlds, but not in others?" Xion asked.

"We're only allowed to interact with 'em as soon as we've gathered as much intel on their world as we possibly can. Any interaction before could mess up the data. The exception is, if interacting with them is the only way to gather intel or if boss orders you to do so." Axel explained.

"So no helping the people in new worlds..."

"Unless boss gives us the ok."

"That's good to know."

Roxas chewed on his popsicle stick. "All this for 'Kingdom Hearts'? What's so great about it anyway?"

"Are you out of your mind? Once we complete Kingdom Hearts, we'll get hearts again," Axel said.

"I know that. I just don't know why we need hearts."

"What's gotten into you all of a sudden?"

"I don't know...I started thinking about it after Xemnas made that big speech. He seems really excited about it...for us to get hearts, but what can we do with hearts that we can't do now?"

"We can be complete," Xion said. "Knowing that something important is missing from me that keeps us from being 'somebodies' makes me want to finish Kingdom Hearts."

"We can't feel anything either as nobodies," Axel added.

"I want to know that too... if these emotions I feel are made up...if I what I'm doing is because of who I am or what people see in me."

Roxas stared at the orange clouds. "Is that what this means to you, Xion? I never really think about that stuff."

"That's why we need to get hearts so we can all know."

"Yeah... I guess you're right."

XxXX

**Day 95**

"A fellow member has discovered a new world, your mission is to do recon in..." He paused, confusing Xion and Roxas. "...Hollow Bastion." Saïx gave them the mission report and left abruptly.

"Hollow...Bastion," Roxas said. "That's a pretty grim name."

"Yeah. Guess we'll find out why it's called that soon enough."

They walked up to Axel before departing. He was sitting at the long table, staring at Kingdom Hearts. "Hey Axel!" Xion said.

"What's up?" Roxas dittoed

"Hey you two! Ready for another long day?"

"Yep. Doing recon in a new world." Roxas gave Axel their mission report for him to look over. "We're kinda worried about the name though 'Hollow Bastion' doesn't sound like the most safest place to be."

"..."

"Axel?"

"...sorry...it's just, this description, it sounds so familiar."

"Were you the one who discovered this place?" Xion asked.

"Nope. Wasn't me. The name doesn't ring a bell either." He stood up, a dazed look on his face, memories came back to him in pieces, but it was impossible to put them back together. "...Good luck on your mission!" He muttered with forced enthusiasm.

Roxas and Xion both looked at each other, worried. They parted ways with Axel and walked into a dark portal.

OoO

Contrary to what they were thinking, Hollow Bastion was a large, sprawling city. Many people of all types, from humans to ducks, were walking around the stone paved city and shopping at various stores.

There was, of course, an undeniably strong presence of heartless, especially coming from the castle that loomed over the city. Though it was masked by an even stronger presence of delicious smells coming from the food shops and restaurants scattered about.

"This is Hollow Bastion," Roxas said, both of them were dumbfounded by the sheer magnitude of the city.

Xion crossed her arms. "Too bad we're here on recon, I'd to check things out. Now we'll have to work extra hard not to get caught."

"It shouldn't be a problem." Roxas pointed to the flat top roofs on nearly every building, including the building they were standing on. "We should get through this place without being spotted."

 _'That's what you say now.'_ "So where should we begin? This place is massive."

"At that castle over there in distance."

"Good idea. Let's get going!"

Xion and Roxas traversed across the rooftops and made their way to the abandoned castle. Along their way, however, Xion spotted a group of people walking by. She stopped. "Let's see what they're saying, it looks like they might know a few things about this place."

Roxas nodded. They crouched down behind a large fixture on the roof and listened in.

"...Progress so far has definitely improved from last month. We've successfully restored just about every building," Said Leon, a young man with medium length, dark brown hair. Leon's attire was almost entirely black, coupled with stoic expression and scarred face, he came off as brooding and standoffish. Despite that, it didn't stop possibly the most cheery, quirky people he'd ever met to befriend him, well, cheery and quirky save for one person…

"Not every building," Cloud said. He had spiky, blonde hair and wore similar attire to Leon, in fact, he had nearly the same personality as Leon, if not a little more closed off and serious. "Ansem's castle is filled with heartless. There's no way we can get rid of them."

"Nor can we ever, without the keyblade."

"It be nice if at least one of us could wield a keyblade," Aerith, a young woman, said. She wore a long pink dress and had a warm face along with a soft voice, constrasting the dark mood Leon and Cloud set off. "That way, fighting them didn't feel completely pointless."

Another woman, younger and more lively than the rest with short black hair and an even shorter stature, boasted, "I sure don't know why that wasn't me, I mean, I am the most powerful ninja in the world...if not Hollow Bastion. I'm the obvious choice!"

"You sure are." Tifa remarked sarcastically. She had long brown hair tied in a at the end. Her clothes were made for work; white shirt with suspenders and a short brown skirt, her black gloves tied the whole outfit together.

Tifa continued. "But at least we're finally all back together again in one place!"

"Not everyone...Zack is still missing," Aerith said.

Cloud pushed his hair away from his face, an action he did frequently. "He's not in Olympus Coliseum like he said would be."

"He promised he'd come back after becoming a hero. I wish Zack would keep his promises for once, it's been too long…"

"Wherever he is, he'll come back eventually." Leon reassured.

 _'Leon...that's what you've been saying for years, sometimes I wonder if he's even...'_ Aerith shook her head. "What am I even worried about...he'll probably come back with another girlfriend."

"We'll have to teach him a lesson then!" Tifa said, pumping her fist.

"He'll wish he never left when we're done with him!" Yuffie added.

"No wonder he's been avoiding us—" Cloud stopped suddenly and summoned his buster sword. "More heatless." He took off.

The others took their own weapons out and followed behind the spiky blonde until they disappeared down a dark alley. At the point, Xion and Roxas could no longer keep track of them and they pulled back.

Xion turned to Roxas. "Another world filled with heartless, that's nothing new, but the source of the heartless is at a place called Ansem's castle.

"...Ansem." Roxas thought for a moment. "It's not like...I've never heard that name before."

"Maybe you've heard the name before and just didn't realize it. Anyway, I think we've collected enough information at the moment in this world, ready to go see Axel?"

"Sure! I'll lead the way!"

From the dark portal, they came to Twilight Town's clock tower.

"Aw Axel's not here yet."

Xion bumped Roxas' shoulder. "Why don't I get some ice cream, maybe he'll be here when I come back."

"Alright."

Jumping off the building, she caught herself on the side of a window panel before landing on the ground. Once on the ground, she opened her munny pouch. "...30...60...hm, looks like I brought more than enough this time." Holding the pouch in hand, Xion made her way to the ice cream shop.

'There's no line! Awesome!' She ran up to the counter. "Three sea salt ice creams, please."

"Coming right up!"

Xion tapped her fingers on the counter. 'I wonder why Axel acted so weird earlier today as soon as we brought up Hollow Bastion...could it be from memories he's had as a human? There's only one way to find out.'

"Hereee ya go!" The ice cream shop owner announced.

Xion happily took the ice cream from his hands, while he happily took the money from her. Just as she was about to take off, she saw three kids walking by. '...Oh, it's those guys from the mansion, I should see how they're doing!'

"Hey you guys!" She greeted.

"What's up, Xion? It's nice to see you again!" Olette chirped.

"Yeah, that back flip you did off the building was so cool!" Pence exclaimed.

Xion looked to Hayner who was unusually silent in her presence. She traced back to Olette who waved it off. "Don't mind him, he's just acting weird," She said.

"I wonder why," Pence said with a smirk.

"...Well, I'm glad you're all doing fine...I need to get going, y'know, before this melts and everything. I'll try and see you guys another time!"

"Don't worry, we won't be going anywhere any time soon with school in session," Pence said.

Olette smiled. "That's for sure...and by the way, I love your hair, it's so cute!"

"Th-Thank you!" Xion stammered, quickly turning away to hide the blush creeping up her cheeks. She left the three friends and disappeared down the winding streets.

Xion re-appeared on the roof on the clock tower where, just below, Roxas along with Axel were chatting away. She jumped down onto the ledge, startling the both of them.

"Ta-da!" She presented the ice cream bars to her friends.

"Hey Xion, What's up?" Axel said coolly.

Roxas rested his hands behind his head. "You sure took your time, huh?"

"I got a little sidetracked, but I'm here now." After passing out the ice cream, Xion plopped onto the ledge and finally bit down on her own ice cream. 'It's super sweet!'

"So what were you guys talking about?" Xion asked.

"Me and Axel were talking about Hollow Bastion, he says he remembers stuff about it."

"Yeah, the more Roxas talks about what you guys saw there, I can't help but feel like I've been there myself."

"Do you think it's your memories from when you were human?"

"There's no doubt about that, and I know they were good memories...Saïx was there and someone else."

"Good memories? With... Saïx," Xion said.

"He was a different person back then when we were human. Now, well, you've seen him."

"How different do you think we were as humans?" Roxas asked.

Axel was quiet for a few seconds. "Probably not any different than you are now. Saïx is just a special case, that's all."

"A special case..."


	10. Revival

**Day 96**

"Xion, Roxas, I need you both on separate missions today," Saïx said.

"What? Why?" Xion asked, she tried her best to make herself look and sound calm, but she was afraid she came off as looking even more nervous. Thankfully, Saïx's attention was focused on the mission reports in his hand.

"Two major heartless have surfaced across in two different worlds. Roxas, you take Beast's castle. Xion, Agrabah."

As Xion and Roxas' heads were sinking lower and lower in wake of their unexpected separation, Axel stepped in with a smirk on his face. "Whoa, sending Roxas alone to Beast's Castle? That's a disaster waiting to happen," He said coolly.

Though skeptical, Saïx took the bait. "What're you going on about?"

"Remember, you sent me on recon there yesterday. I saw the 'major' heartless you were talking about myself and you don't wanna pit Roxas alone against that thing."

"Who's going to handle the one in Agrabah?"

"I will."

"You?"

"Yeah, sure, I'm a big boy. Taking out that heartless will be a piece of cake."

"Except you won't be able to collect its heart."

"No big deal. THe big ones take a long time to resurface and Roxas or Xion can collect its heart another day."

"Is that okay with you, sir?" Roxas asked, he hoped by adding the 'sir' honorific it would change Saïx's mind.

"...Fine." He turned away. "But this is the last day you two may work together. Starting tomorrow, you both work solo."

The trio Saïx waited until he was out of earshot range from them before talking to each other. "...Well, looks like I just bought you two another day," Axel said.

"—Don't think for a moment I believed that little act of yours." Saïx appeared behind Axel then knocked him out of the way. He held the mission report he intentionally didn't give out prior to Roxas and Xion.

"Let me be clear. After today, you're not allowed to work as a team unless I specifically grant you the right. In other words, not anytime soon in the foreseeable future," He said as Roxas nervously took the slip of paper from his hand. "Understood?"

"Yes."

"..."

"Yes sir."

Saïx was about to reprimand Axel next, but he was long gone, preferably out on his mission. Satisfied, he walked off. This time, the duo waited until he disappeared completely before talking to each other.

Roxas looked over to Xion, her face drained of color, he could tell how panicked she felt just by being near her. "...Xion..." He tried to find the right words, but nothing came to him.

"Don't worry about it." Were the words that came out of her mouth, it was an automatic response more than anything. Her head was so cloudy full of thoughts, she was surprised she could say anything to him at all, let alone words of reassurance. _'What am I saying...I'm so worried...I feel sick.'_ Xion went ahead without a moment's hesitation and made a dark portal. She and Roxas went through the darkness in utter silence.

OoO

They arrived at Beast's castle on the balcony. "Well, let's go fight that heartless!" Xion exclaimed with as much enthusiasm she could muster. 'After this...there's no doubt I'm becoming a dusk.'

"Hold on." Roxas finally said. He summoned his keyblade and pressed it into her hand. "You're gonna need this."

The familiarly of touching a keyblade, especially his keyblade, after so long came rushing back to her. "Roxas..." She said slowly.

"We're both keyblade wielders, so you should be able to wield my keyblade no problem, give it a try!"

She gave it an experimental swing, the motion was fluid, effortless, despite not having held one in what's felt like forever. The keyblade stayed fastened to her hand, as if it were own keyblade and yet still retained a certain distinctiveness that reminded her who the true owner of the keyblade was.

"Go ahead. Maybe it'll help you remember how to summon your own keyblade. In the meantime..." Roxas handied himself with a stick he found lying on the balcony. "I'll use this!"

Xion threw her arms around Roxas and squeezed him tightly. "Thank you, Roxas, thank you so much!"

"It was nothing..." Roxas rubbed the back of his head and looked downwards, flustered. "So..uh...how does it feel wielding my keyblade?"

"Very warm...like we're holding hands."

"Xion...don't say weird stuff like that..."

Xion and Roxas both shyly looked away from each other and an awkward pause ensued.

"Hey...do you wanna go inside already?" Xion finally asked.

"Yeah, it's pretty chilly outside."

While they walked inside, Roxas checked the mission report over. "Loaks like we're defeating a really strong heartless named Bully Dog, that shouldn't be too hard to find."

"How strong is 'really strong' do you think?"

"Well, he gave us an A-rank mission, so...pretty strong."

"Are you sure you can manage with just a stick, is your magic up to par?"

"Doesn't matter. You're here, right?"

"I know that's just an excuse, Roxas. Regardless...I'll make sure you don't get hurt too bad."

"Oh thanks," He said sarcastically. "How about we go search on the first floor for heartless."

They walked down the marble steps and traveled into the entrance hall; completely empty. Roxas and Xion glanced at each other with a mix of confusion and relief. "At least now we can fight in the open without having to worry about any talking clocks seeing us," Roxas said, Xion nodded in agreement.

When they took another step into the eerie hall, several heartless materialized from the cuts of shadows trailing behind the overarching columns. Xion, for once, ran ahead into the fray of shadows while Roxas stayed behind. Reaching the heartless, Xion extended the keyblade out in front of her. _'I think he does it like this!'_ She lit the keyblade on fire, a relatively easy task, the hard part would be getting the technique down.

Xion threw the flaming keyblade rather flimsily and it bounced off the floor a few inches away from the heartless. "Are you kidding me..." She muttered under breath as she went to pick the keyblade up.

"Don't worry I got your back!" Roxas called out. He attempted to shoot a blizzard spell at the heartless, but he missed completely and it spiraled towards Xion. "Watch out!" He yelled.

"Huh? Oh!" Xion quickly dodged the ice blast and it exploded on the back wall. "What're you doing?!" She yelled back.

"Sorry! It's really hard to get this aim...- look, behind you!"

Xion twirled around and whacked the shadow lunging for her head, while its heart floated away, she held the keyblade in front of her to block an incoming punch from a large armour. _'This is a lot harder than I remember.'_ There was another heartless homing in on her in the air, before it could crash into her, Roxas swatted the flying heartless away with his stick.

"Roxas! Thanks!"

"No problem!"

Now that Xion and Roxas were together, the heartless took it as their chance to gang up around them on all sides. "...crap, looks like they got us surrounded!"

"...Roxas, I have an idea, just follow my lead."

"Got it!"

Xion jumped over the large armour and threw the keyblade at the heartless forming behind it. The keyblade flew around in a semi-circle, killing half of the heartless, and was going after Roxas next. He caught the keyblade in hand and destroyed the other half of the heartless with only the large armour and air soldier left.

Gripping the keyblade handle, Roxas electrified the keyblade, then threw it like a dagger at the large armour. His keyblade tunneled straight through the heartless' armor and came flying out on the other side where Xion caught it.

"Roxas, there's one more in front of you!"

"Ok, let's try this again!" Roxas pointed his finger at the air soldier. "Freeze!" The air solider merely maneuvered past the ice blast Roxas shot, he tried again and fired a round of ice blasts, each of them being successfully dodged by the airborne heartless.

The air soldier headbutted Roxas as hard as its darkness bounded body would allow it to and Roxas fell over. Xion, taken by surprises of how strong and fast the seemingly soldier class heartless was, received a kick in the head. She rubbed the lump starting to swell on her head. 'Ow, that thing really hits hard!'

Xion rolled onto her back and pointed the keyblade at the flying menace. "Blizzara!" The air soldier, of course, dodged the ice blasts, but as it was distracted, Roxas unexpectedly lunged at the heartless and pinned it on the ground.

"Get it now!" Roxas yelled.

With one swift movement, Xion dug the keyblade into the heartless' chest and a heart finally appeared. They breathed a sigh of relief.

"What kind of heartless as that?! There's no way it should've been that tough!" Roxas exclaimed.

"I know, I hope that's the toughest heartless we have to face before the boss."

"Man...I almost forgot about the boss..."

"We should be fine! Come on, let's get going!"

They ventured further down the hall in hopes of reaching the large door in the back, but their journey was interrupted by a clunk-clunk-clunk sound coming from the front entrance. No doubt it was one of the objects so they moved behind a statue.

"...Those horrid creatures plaguing the castle has kept master from seeing Belle for days," Cogsworth said to himself. "I do wish there was some way we could get rid of those monsters, so that we can bring the two of them together."

"It's that clock again." Xion whispered. "He mentioned someone named Belle, do you think she's the same girl we heard the other day?"

"Definitely, but I wonder why his servants want him and Belle to get along so much and in such a hurry too."

"There's no use in dwelling on it, let's focus on our mission first."

"Right..." He glanced at the giant door behind them. "We have to get through there without being caught."

"Any ideas?"

"I think I got one." He snapped his stick in half and threw it over to Cogsworth. When he went to investigate the sudden disturbance, Xion and Roxas slipped through the door.

Much to their surprise, they entered into a giant ballroom encrusted with gold and ivory. The sheer ornate beauty and its delicately crafted appearance compared to the rest of the castle was stunning. The center piece to tie it all in was a massive chandelier hanging just above the glossy floor.

"This place is so pretty!"

Roxas pointed to the arched windows that stretched all the way up to the ceiling. "I bet the view from this castle is pretty amazing!" They ran over and peered out into the starry night that hung over the snow tipped forest. "I think I see a town past the forest."

"Yeah me too..."

She let out a short sigh. "Roxas..." Her sullen voice echoed throughout the ballroom. "Fighting without your keyblade has been really hard for you, I feel bad that I'm just taking it away."

"It's fine, you don't have to worry about me..." He swung his broken stick around. "But do you remember how to summon your own keyblade?"

Xion shook her head. "No...sorry."

"Don't be, it'll come back to you soon enough. I'm sure of it."

"Thanks Roxas, but I don't think you'll be ok with just that stick," She took out a few ethers and handed them to Roxas. "I know you can use your magic well if you try."

_'Easy for you to say.'_

Just then, a large black circle formed in the middle of the ballroom floor. From it, an enormous dog like creature infused with darkness crawled out and bared its teeth at the two nobodies.

"There's our major heartless. Are you ready, Xion?"

She nodded, then ran up to bully dog and slapped her keyblade on its head. As she landed down on the floor, bully dog went in to snap its square shaped jaws at Xion. Roxas, acting fast, threw his stick across the floor and bully dog, to their surprise, went to fetch it.

 _'I can't believe that worked!'_ While bully dog was temporarily distracted, Roxas ran over to Xion's side. "Xion...how do you think we should take this thing on?"

"No idea, let's just try and see what sticks."

"H-huh?! Are you serious, you're starting to sound way too much like me!"

Xion rubbed the back of her head and smiling cheekily. "Must be because I'm using your keyblade..."

"Heh, well the good thing is, I have an idea now. I'm gonna paralyze bully dog with a thunder spell and you attack it while it's down, then we repeat the process 'till its heart is released."

"Ok, be careful."

Roxas approached bully dog from behind, summoning dark clouds along the way that circled over its head. Lightning erupted from the clouds and electrocuted the giant heartless, rendering it paralyzed.

Following his lead, Xion hit bully dog from all sides while Roxas conjured up a fire spell. He momentarily lit the heartless on fire and stirred awake.

_'Damn it, how can it still be alive?!'_

Bully dog growled at Roxas, thick, black smoke gushing from its mouth, it cracked open its jaw and charged for Roxas. The ballroom, meanwhile, was filling up with smoke.

"ROXAS!" Xion yelled, she threw the keyblade at bully dog and it chomped the keyblade up. "Huh?!"

Whipping its head back to the blonde headed nobody, Roxas was already preparing a blizzard spell. 'This has to work!' A giant ice blast formed in front of him and collided with bully dog, this time for the first time, freezing it in place.

Xion attempted to summon the keyblade back, but nothing came, she tried again and a keyblade materialized in her hand. "...this doesn't feel like..." She looked back up to where Roxas was standing and realized he already had his keyblade in hand. "No. This is mine." The keyblade handle was warm, as if it never left, she held it close to her and smiled.

Roxas came up to her, smiling along with her. "Ready to end this?"

"Let's do this together."

They raised their keyblades and made a devastating blow on bully dog. All that remained was a large heart that hovered above them.

"Roxas!" Xion clasped her hands on Roxas and jumped up in excitement. "I won't have get turned into a dusk! Thank you for helping me, you're the best!"

"We have to go tell Axel the good news, he's gonna flip out!"

"Okay!" She created a dark portal and pulled Roxas through the darkness.

OoO

Xion and Roxas found Axel sitting at the clock tower in his usual spot. "Took you two long enough. So what're you guys grinning about? Got off work early or something?"

Xion shook her head. "We'll tell you as soon as you tell us about your day."

"Yeah, did your mission go okay?"

"Oh, it was loads of fun." He remarked snidely. "But man, would it kill for the heartless to hold still for a second? I fell on my butt trying to chase that damn thing."

Roxas and Xion chuckled. "Nice, so much for being a big boy," Roxas said.

"Very funny, so how did your mission go?"

Roxas gestured to Xion, who summoned her keyblade. "Ta-daaaaah!" He announced.

"I'd like to dedicate this keyblade summoning to my good friends Axel and Roxas for their contributions and making this all possible," Xion said in mock seriousness.

"Pfft, me? I didn't do anything," Axel said.

"Sure you did. If you hadn't spoken up for us this morning, me and Roxas would've had to split up."

"And then Xion would've never remembered how to summon her keyblade." Roxas added.

"Thank you, Axel...I really mean it."

Axel rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed. "Ahem," He croaked. "How 'bout an ice cream then...to celebrate. You buy and I'll call us even."

"You got it! I'll be right back!"

OoO

Axel, Roxas, and Xion sat together on the ledge enjoying their ice cream, each other's company, and the everlasting sunset. Roxas, finishing his own ice cream, started chewing on the stick, a thought forming in his head. "You know...I hope we always have each other," He said out of the blue.

Xion rested her head on the clock tower's face. "I wish it could."

"What's gotten into you, Roxas?" Axel asked.

"I just...I just want days like this to last forever. Hanging out, the ice cream, the sunsets."

"Nothing lasts forever, especially not for us nobodies, but..." He rested his eyes. "Even if everything changes and the day comes where we can't do this anymore, that'll be okay."

"Wait...what?"

"'Cause as long as we got each other in our memories, we'll never be apart." He tapped on his temple. "Got it memorized?"

"Axel, now what's gotten into you?" Xion asked.

"Yeah, that sounded ridiculous."

"What? I thought it sounded pretty deep..."

Xion and Roxas both laughed, and soon, Axel joined in.

XxXX

**Day 97**

"Xion! Come over here!" Roxas hollered as soon as Xion entered into the Gray room.

Curious, Xion walked over to the long table in the back where Roxas was sitting along with a computer. "What's up?" She peeked over his shoulder and saw Roxas playing some type of game called 'Mog House'.

"Aww! It's so cute!" Xion gushed, she pushed Roxas over to get a better view of the screen. "How do you play it?" She asked, sitting down.

"You just feed it a bunch of kupo nuts to impress this girl moogle."

Xion went through a series of clicks and before long, the moogle was really chubby. When the moogle tried to fly, however, it landed flat on its face and the girl moogle was already off the find another mate. A 'GAME OVER' message flashed across the screen until it went back to the start.

"Wh-What happened? I lost?!"

"You fed him too much kupo nuts, let me do it this time."

"You're not going to do anything other than your mission." Saïx gave them their mission reports. "Remember, you two work solo from now on."

"...But it looks like we're going to the same place!" Roxas exclaimed.

Saïx snatched the paper from Roxas' hands and skimmed it over. "Roxas, your new assignment is to collect 35 hearts in Wonderland." He walked off and they both let out a long sigh.

"If only I didn't open my big mouth like that."

"It's ok, we'll meet by the clock tower later on today, won't we?"

"I'll be there if my mission doesn't take forever, but I'm not so sure about Axel. Who knows, though, he might surprise us."

"I wouldn't be surprised at all if he did."

"Alright, see you soon?"

Xion gave him a small smile. "Of course."

After their exchange, they parted ways into separate dark portals.

OoO

Xion stepped out of the dark portal and into the City in the Desert. She felt bittersweet coming to Agrabah without Roxas, on the one hand, she had a purpose to fulfill with her keyblade, but she missed seeing Roxas' determined, yet lighthearted face when they began a new mission together. Though, the bittersweet resentment fell short as she heard a familiar voice calling out to her.

"Hey! How's it going?"

She spun around. Aladdin. _'He looks really excited, well, the city's definitely doing a lot better, I can tell.'_

Aladdin slowed down when he neared her, taking a moment to catch his breath. "It's been awhile since we've seen each other...uh, your name, still haven't caught it yet."

 _'He's right, whenever me and Roxas went here, it was always back to that cave for recon or collecting hearts.'_ "It's Xion."

"Well, Xion, I know you're not Sora so it's ok if you don't want help, but something's not right in the palace. I'm thinking it might be the work of the heartless."

"I'd love to help, let's go check it out." _'It might even be the heartless I have to do a report over.'_

"Great, c'mon, follow me!"

Compared to the blazing fast speeds the Organization members ran, Xion effortlessly followed Aladdin through the maze-like layout of the market square. Since the palace was just outside of the city, it took only a few minutes for them to reach it. As Xion expected, the palace was massive, but the appearance of it was unexpected to her. It looked nothing like the Nobodies' castle she grown accustomed to as it lacked the angular, unwelcoming and pale white facade of their own castle.

"Pretty amazing, huh? I never dreamed I would ever step into a place like this." Aladdin began his trek up the long set of stairs that led to the front entrance.

Xion stayed behind him, watching the guards stationed by the steps as they watched her. 'How did Xaldin ever get past these guys? He must be good at recon.'

Without much trouble from the guards, Xion and Aladdin entered the palace. The interior was beautiful, fit for a castle like this. It was also very expensive looking, everything was handcrafted from slabs of marble and gold, yet it still managed to retain an earthy feeling.

"I'm gonna go check up on Jasmine first to see if she's alright. Her room is just a little way's down this hall." They walked down a velvet carpet, their steps augmented throughout the palace. "I'm pretty sure she should still be in her room," He said, coming to a stop at a large door. He pushed the door open and ran up to the canopy bed in the center of the room.

Xion was about to follow him in, but he abruptly came back out with a confused expression on his face. "I swear she was there on her bed with Rajah before I left, maybe she went out to the garden..." He muttered to himself.

"Is something wrong?" Xion asked.

"No, no. Let's go to the garden, you'll love it there."

They traveled to the back of the palace and went outside.

"Wow! The garden is beautiful!" Xion exclaimed, marveling over the vibrant green trees dotting the area and the huge fountain laid out in the center. Although, the eerie feeling it gave off took away from its beauty. It was as if something wanted the two of them to be there.

"I told you, you'd love it." He cupped his hands over his mouth. "JASMINE! ARE YOU HERE?!"

There was rustling among the trees and a giant tiger came out and pounced on Aladdin. He started laughing "H-hey! You're not Jasmine, Rajah!"

Xion shook her head. _'I was worried there for a second, well, now that he's busy, I wouldn't hurt to look around a bit myself.'_

She walked off into the swarm of trees. 'I'd love to relax in this place, I'm so jealous of Aladdin...it's just that...there's an overwhelming presence of heartless coming from somewhere, and yet I haven't encountered any.'

Summoning her keyblade, a practice she was grateful she could do at all, she rested the handle in her hand and swung it around. _'I don't mind being stuck here if I can't finish my mission.'_ Xion eventually ended up in the back entry way of the palace. _'So there's another entry way to the palace? I bet that's how Xaldin got through. I guess now I should get back to Aladdin.'_

Xion backtracked to the garden entrance, but found no trace of Aladdin or even Rajah anywhere. _'Maybe...that tiger wasn't as nice as it appeared to be, no-no, he's out looking for me, why would I even think that.'_

"HEEEEEEY-O SORA!"

"GAH!" Xion screamed.

"Oh come on, I'm not that scary right carpet?" Genie said.

Carpet wavered its tussle.

"See even Carpet agrees, are you trying to give me a complex or something? You'll ruin my image!"

"I'm sorry...you just popped out of nowhere." _'And I'm already creeped out enough.'_

"You should expect that from me by now, hmph, some friend you are!" Genie flew away and Carpet followed behind him.

"Well, that was weird."

"—You know what else is weird?"

"AGH!" Xion screamed again, not realizing Genie and Carpet popped up behind her...again.

Genie continued. "That your look-alike isn't anywhere near here, what was the name? Rock salt? First Donald and Goofy, now the blondie, I bet he must of ditched you just like how Al ditched me."

 _'I'm about ready to ditch you too.'_ "Wait, does that mean you know where Aladdin went?"

"Sure have, I found 'ol Al waltzing around in the palace, but when I tried to say hi, he walked right past me. As if there are more important things to do than having a chat with your best pal!"

"He's probably just really worried about Jasmine."

"You might be right, I haven't seen her at all today, or even the Sultan."

"...hm, so you said the last place you saw Aladdin was in the palace, I might be able to find him if I hurry." She turned to walk back into the palace.

"What's with all the 'I' stuff? We'll help too of course, us friends gotta stick together!"

Xion waved her arm, beckoning Genie and Carpet to follow her in. "Where exactly did you see Aladdin?" She asked once they were inside.

"Coming out of the dungeon, real creepy place to be hanging around if you ask me."

"That is weird...the heartless have to be behind this."

"You know what? You're onto something, I'll show you the way to the dungeon!"

On their way to the dungeon, past several long halls and sharp corridors, they found Aladdin walking mindlessly towards their destination. "HEY! THERE'S A—" Carpet slapped its tussle over Genie's mouth while Xion ushered Genie and Carpet behind a corner.

"Let's see where he's going first, maybe it'll lead us to the others." She whispered.

Genie nodded and snuck an annoyed glance at Carpet.

They watched the rugged prince until he was far enough way for them to trail behind him unnoticed. After navigating several long halls they began down a set of stairs that unwound into the damp, dark dungeon hidden away under the palace.

"This is the dungeon." Genie whispered.

Xion silently commanded them to stop and they sat back as Aladdin opened up one of the cells. _'There's heartless down here, I can feel it.'_ Her keyblade came to hand and they all continued to the cell door.

"What's Al even doing? I've never seen him act this strange before, maybe it was something he ate."

Carpet waved its tussle back and forth, speaking some nonverbal language only Genie understood.

Genie plucked at his beard in response. "I thought that too at first, but it just doesn't seem like Al...Al's you know, Al...and he took the sultan with him."

"...!"

"I know right? You think things would change a little around here, nope same old, same old. I'm starting to miss that glorious vacation we were on. The beach is calling my name!"

"...?!"

Xion stared at them, utterly lost in the conversation the two magical beings were having. _'There must be a rich story behind those two, this whole world feels like something out of a dream.'_ She shook her head. "We're getting off track, we still have to save Aladdin!"

"Right-right, whatever heartless is messing with everyone, we'll capture them right here!" Genie kicked the cell door open

Xion rolled in and pointed her keyblade aimlessly in the dark. "Come out heartless!"

"Oh thank goodness, someone is here!" Cried a woman's voice.

She followed the sound of her voice to the very back of the cell where Aladdin, Jasmine, and the Sultan, were all chained up to the wall. "What happened?" Xion asked, running up to them.

"I don't know...Aladdin chained us up here and then he chained himself."

"What? Why would Al do that?!" Genie exclaimed.

"He's not himself..." Jasmine's head hung low. "That's all I know."

Genie shook Al's limp body back forth. "Al! What's gotten into you?!"

"...Genie..." Aladdin's head suddenly snapped back and an inky black substance oozed from his mouth. The substance took the form of a gaseous creature with a pair of yellow eyes and purple horns.

"Yikes! You're on your own, pal!" Genie poofed out.

"Genie!" Xion yelled. No response, she sighed and leveled her keyblade. _'So much for sticking together.'_ "I knew a heartless was the one who's been causing this!" She swung her keyblade at the heartless only for it to separate as a form of dodging.

"Are you kidding me?!" She swung again and the heartless vanished into thin air.

Xion scanned the area for any sign of the heartless, in amidst of her search, Carpet instantaneously wrapped around her body like a snake and she fell down to the ground. "What's with you?! Get off of me!" Xion tried to wiggle out of the unexpected trap, but the carpet held fast onto her body.

_'Ok...plan B.'_

"Stop." She peeled the carpet off of her and threw it to the other side. 'I think I get it...that heartless must of possessed Carpet, just like how it possessed Aladdin.' When the stop spell wore off, Xion jumped back as far away as she could.

_'...Now I just have to figure out a way to get that heartless out.'_

"—I'M BAAAACK!"

Xion fell backwards, once again startled by Genie's surprise entrance. More surprisingly though, the heartless bound to Carpet jumped out, startled as well by Genie. Xion, still on the ground, threw her keyblade at it and its heart was released.

"Well, look at that. Maybe being scary isn't such a bad thing," Genie said.

"Genie, I'm glad you came back." Xion picked herself up.

"You didn't really think I was gone for good! Us friends gotta stick together." He held a ring of keys in his hand. "And help other friends out." He unlocked the chains holding the Sultan, Jasmine and Aladdin.

The Sultan rubbed his temples. "What happened?! What am I doing here?! Why am I not in my bath?!" He demanded.

"It's a long story, father, but at least we're safe now." Jasmine turned to Aladdin. "Aladdin, are you ok?"

"Yeah, but my head hurts a little, are you ok, Jasmine?"

"I'm fine, just worried...you locked us all up here, and then yourself."

"What?! I did?!"

"Not because you wanted to, I hope."

"No, he didn't. A heartless possessed him and made him do all these things to you so the heartless could eventually turn you all into heartless yourselves." Xion explained.

"That explains a lot," Jasmine said. "And thank you for helping us again, Sora."

"Yes, your help is much appreciated." The Sultan added.

Aladdin shook his head. "Actually, that's not Sora...she's Xion. This isn't the first time she's helped me out either, thanks again."

"XION?! I thought this kid was Sora the entire time!" Genie yelled. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"

"Eh..." Xion gave him a crooked smile. "It didn't really matter to me either way."

"Humph! Some friend you are!"

"You mean...you consider me a friend even though I'm not Sora?"

"Sure, you helped us out after all," Aladdin said.

"...I did, didn't I? Well, this is my time to leave."

"As a friend of ours, feel free to come back anytime to the palace and to Agrabah," Jasmine said.

"That's for sure, with that icky heartless gone, we'll have some time to party!"

"We'll have take a rain check on the party. Agrabah is still in a pretty bad shape, and who knows when the next sandstorm will hit."

"Don't count on one anytime soon, Al! Trust me."

Xion took her leaving and went back up the staircase to the upper floor level. She got out her notebook and pen, then began writing her report. _"'Pureblood heartless, it's completely black and looks like a ball of smoke, this heartless is the size of a nobody's head.'"_ She scribbled a black cloud with angry eyes on the report. _"'Likewise, this heartless is weak physically, but makes up for it with its ability to posses both humans and objects alike as its main form of attack. I call this heartless a Possessor Heartless.'"_

Stuffing the pen and paper into the insides of her coat, Xion walked through a dark portal she created.

OoO

At the other side of the dark portal, Axel and Roxas were sitting on the ledge. _'Looks like I'm last again.'_

"Hey Xion, you sure took your time." Roxas remarked.

"Yeah, you took so long I had to eat your ice cream because it was melting," Axel said.

"What?! Oh man..."

"Heh, just kidding," An ice cream appeared in his hand like magic. "Takes a while before these things melt, wonder what they put in 'em."

Xion sat at the end next to Roxas, she took her ice cream from Axel and bit into it. Instantly, she was relaxed, at home. "So...how were your guy's mission? Mine was well..uh," She thought for a moment. "Interesting."

"More recon for me at Hollow Bastion, you know how that goes, but now since I went there myself, I know for sure I've been there before as a human."

"That's good, I think. I've kind of had that feeling about every world I go to, isn't that weird?"

"Uh..yeah...that's weird."

Roxas looked at Axel and Xion then sighed. "Aw, you two sound like you had a lot of fun, Wonderland sucked for me. I got lost in the woods and I couldn't find a way out so I had to go back and forth defeating heartless until I collected enough hearts!"

"That does sound really boring, at least you weren't afraid of getting possessed by a creepy heartless," Xion said.

"Huh?!"

"What the hell happened on your mission?!"

"It's a long story, so I'll start from the top!"


	11. Together Apart

  
**Day 98**

*knock-knock

Before Xion could even lift herself out of bed to open the door, Roxas let himself into her room and plopped himself down on the bed. "Hey! Mornin' Xion!" He greeted.

"...morning..." She yawned and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "You sound enthusiastic, what do you want?"

"I wanna go to this festival with you."

"Where's it at?"

"Twilight Town. There's this thing called a summer festival I've been hearing about since the last time I came there and they're giving out a bunch of free ice cream. So, how about it?"

"Of course, sounds fun!"

Roxas grinned. "-Oh and before you ask, we'll be back before Saïx even wakes up to assign us missions. Axel's for sure gonna come with us too...whenever he's done with his mission that is."

"He's on a mission at this time? Gosh, no wonder he takes so many naps."

"Yeah I know." Roxas got off the bed and headed back to the doorway. "C'mon slowpoke or I'll leave without ya."

"Right, right, after you just invited me." Xion followed Roxas out of her room and down the hall into a dark portal.

OoO

Xion and Roxas arrived in the streets of Twilight Town, it was a relatively quiet day with a few people walking around, shopping, and gazing through the store windows. Days like this were xion's favorite.

"Alright so the festival is at a place called 'Sunset Terrace' and we'll have to take the train to get there," Roxas said.

"The train? I've never been on one before."

"Neither have I, this'll be a new experience for the both of us."

They began walking to the station plaza where, unlike the quiet streets, was bustling and loud. "Looks like this is where the rest of Twilight Town is," Roxas said, Xion nodded in silence, they navigated through the crowd to get inside the train station.

As expected, the train station was as jam packed as station plaza, but it only proved the fuel their imagination for what the summer festival would be like. "Whoa didn't think this many people would be here," Roxas said.

Xion smiled. "Man, I'm getting really excited for this!"

Roxas chuckled, then added, "Me too." He fished around in his pocket for his munny pouch. 'For me and her together...I should have just enough for two tickets and a couple snacks at the festival.'

Xion sat down on a bench by the door while Roxas went up to the ticket counter to buy tickets, she glimpsed out of the window at the endless sunset. _'I can't believe I'm going to a festival. I've never been to one of those before. Best of all, I'll be here with one of my best friends.'_

"Hey, Xion."

Xion turned around to see Roxas waving at her with two train tickets in hand. "Let's get on!"

"Ok, I'm coming!" Xion joined Roxas in the line to board the train.

*SCREECH

"Sounds like that's the train."

They boarded the train and found themselves a seat near the back. As the train filled up, Roxas kicked back in his uncomfortable seat and Xion rested her head on the window.

"—Boarding passengers will be taken to Sunset Terrace, the north-east district of Twilight Town." A radio announced. With that, the doors closed shut and the train began moving.

"So..." Roxas began. "How's your keyblade been working out?"

"Great, I really can't thank you enough. Wish I planned going out to this summer festival out for you instead."

"Hey, don't mention it, I'm glad we're here. We should totally do this more often since we won't be working together anymore and all."

"I'd love to." She turned her back to stare out the window and enjoy the view, however, a black substance splatter on the window. "...huh?"

Subsequently, the train came to a halt and the radio blared out, "A swarm of black creatures has appeared on the tracks and we'll be unable to move on until we clear it out. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

Various complaints from the passengers occupied the once quiet train at word of their inconvenience, Xion and Roxas merely glanced at each other with mutual understanding of the situation. They walked down the aisle to the front door and opened it up, as they were moving around more cautiously once they were outside, several shadows jumped out in front of them.

Roxas took the first initiative and swatted them away. He then turned back to Xion, who summoned her own keyblade and with a smirk he said, "Why don't we test out that keyblade of yours?"

"And what do you mean by that?"

"Let's see who can kill the most heartless, loser has to buy the winner ice cream for the rest of the week!"

Xion twirled her keyblade in hand, holding it close. "You're on."

Xion and Roxas separated to opposite ends of the track, each killing as many heartless they could possibly find. There wasn't too many heartless lurking around so their game ended quickly and they returned to each other just as fast as they left.

"So, how many did you get?" Roxas asked, then added, "I got 16."

"Seriously? I only got 9, hm, I bet you miscounted."

"Oh sure," He said sarcastically. "Man, I can just taste that free ice cream already."

Xion rolled her eyes.

"Thank goodness!" Praised the train conductor. "Those things have given us such a hard time in the past!"

"We're happy to help," Xion said, she turned to Roxas. "Hey, we should stay outside on the roof of the train, just in case there's more."

"Yeah, that's a good idea."

"You're doing what?"

"It's ok, we'll have no problem staying in place while it moves," Roxas said.

Shaking his head, the train conductor went back into the train, momentarily, the engine roared and the wheels churned. In no time, the train was back at full speed, chugging across the tracks. The two nobodies stood firmly in place on the roof and watched the sky blur into a mix of orange and red as the train sped to its destination.

OoO

After the first bout of heartless, the road to Sunset Terrace was seamless and Xion unknowingly dozed off. Visions of Sora and Kairi formed in her head, along with another boy she couldn't identify. _'You're the boy named Sora, then there's Kairi...and then the other boy with silver hair. Who are you? Your name—'_

"Xion! Hey! Wake up!"

Her eyes fluttered open. She looked around, dazed, then saw Roxas at the bottom waving to her. "We're here at Sunset Terrace!" He shouted.

Xion jumped off the train's roof and approached Roxas, embarrassed she'd fallen asleep like that. "So uh...the festival, it's here, right? Let's check it out."

"Mm hm!"

Together, they moved past crowds of people and down several sets of steps. They reached the large part of town where the festival was being held.

"Wow, this place looks so cool!"

"I've never seen anything like it!" Xion added.

A comfortable silence sat in between them while they marveled at the various stands stretched across the street and the colorful decorations adorning nearly every building and street sign.

"So what should we do first?" Xion asked.

"Whatever you want do?"

"Let's go see what those guys are doing over there!"

Xion took Roxas by the hand and dragged him all the way to a station where several tanks of small goldfish were swimming around in. A couple of kids were attempting to catch them with paper nets, Xion watched them curiously before turning to Roxas. "What're they doing?" She asked.

"Beats me, but we should try it out."

"—you guys!" A familiar voice yelled out.

Roxas and Xion looked behind to see Olette and Pence running over with Hayner lagging behind. "Never thought I'd find you two here," Olette said once they caught up to them.

"How could we pass free ice cream up," Roxas said.

"Ha ha, right? So this must be your guys' first festival," Pence said. "It's ours too. It took forever to make enough munny 'cause we were spending it on dumb stuff, but here we are."

"Does that mean you haven't played this game before," Xion said, motioning to the fish tanks.

"Poi? Yeah, we've played it before, not with real fish though, just with like toy fish or plastic balls," Olette said. "But basically all you have to do is—"

"Talk is cheap. You learn better by doing." Hayner interjected. "I'll show you how a pro scoops some goldfish."

Olette crossed her arms. "Could you be any more of a showoff?"

"I'm just helpin' some friends out." Hayner went up to the vendor and exchanged some munny for three paper nets and a small, plastic bag. He dipped his net just below the surface of the water, then quickly scooped out four small goldfish while they were swimming over the net.

"That was so cool!" Xion exclaimed.

"Wow Hayner, first try too, when'd you get so good at it?" Pence asked.

"Practice makes perfect, as they say." Hayner, having tied up the fishes in the bag, gave his prize to Xion who giddily accepted it.

"Thank you so much!"

"Anytime," He said smoothly.

Roxas frowned at his advances. "Why don't I try? Looks easy enough if you can do it." He marched up to the vendor to buy paper nets for himself.

"Roxas, it's not a competition." Xion reprimanded. "We're here to have fun."

"I don't know about that, I mean, beating him is gonna be pretty fun!"

Hayner smirked. "Oooh, are those fighting words? Just try and beat me."

Roxas approached the fish tank. _'I'll get a big one, that'll top him.'_ His eyes landed on the oddly colored black goldfish floating at the edge, it was double the size of the rest of the fishes and a perfect catch. He readied his paper net and in one swift motion, scooped the fish up, then plopped it in the bag, along with a few other goldfish.

"That's so awesome!" Xion exclaimed.

"And it's a different color too," Olette said."Talk about rare, huh Hayner?"

"Whatever."

"Oh, Roxas, can I borrow one of your nets so I can try?"

Roxas gave Xion a paper net and she went to the tanks. "...?" Upon closer inspection, she realized all the fish in the tank Roxas used were gone. 'He couldn't of got every single one, something is wrong.'

"What's up, Xion?" Roxas asked.

"Come see for yourself."

Roxas along with Hayner, Pence, and Olette went up to Xion.

Roxas shook his head. "They're all gone? How is that possible?!"

"Whoa, that's kinda freaky. There's no way you got them all in one go," Hayner said.

"..." Roxas raised his own fish bag to examine it, the bag was shrouded in total darkness, as if he was holding a bag of black ink. Suddenly, the bag burst open and several shadows crawled out.

Xion and Roxas summoned their keyblades and tried to attack the shadows, but they swiftly dodged their keyblades and disappeared, just like that.

"What kind of shadows were those... since when did they get so fast?" Xion muttered.

"Looks like those guys follow you everywhere," Pence said. "Where do you think they went this time?"

"Who knows, but me and Xion are going to end them."

Several loud screams erupted not too far from where they were telling them exactly where the heartless were. Before taking off, Xion looked over to Roxas with a smirk on her face. "Let's have a rematch," She said.

"Sure, but when you lose, you're gonna have to buy me and Axel ice cream next week too."

"Oh, really? Then I won't lose." With that, Xion bolted into the direction where the screams were the loudest. _'There, by the fruit stand!'_ She threw her keyblade at two heartless gnawing on the giant watermelons and destroyed them upon impact...along with the watermelon themselves.

As her keyblade, sticky from watermelon guts, returned to her hand, she saw several more heartless materialize from the shadows lining the ground. _'Awesome, I'll for sure win this time around!'_ Although, on her way to defeat the shadows, a keyblade flew in from above and struck the heartless, Roxas came down momentarily to pick his keyblade up and flashed a sly grin at Xion.

"Ugh! Rox..." Xion quickly spun around and slashed an airborne heartless that was coming from behind. _'Still, that only makes 6 for me. I have to up my game.'_ She leaped high up into the air to scout for any more heartless. _'Looks like there's a lot of them by the food carts- and Roxas is already heading that way. I need to hurry up.'_

The moment Xion landed back down on the streets, she took off. On her way to catching up with Roxas, she found a giant heartless wielding an even bigger sword pulling itself out of the darkness. _'That one's near the goldfish scooping place, hope those three are ok.'_ She jumped over several stands and stood in the shadow casked by the towering heartless. _'This heartless...I feel like I recognize it...me and him fought it all those days ago. It's another Orcus.'_

"XION! WATCH OUT!"

"-Huh?!" So lost in her own thoughts, she didn't realize the Orcus' sword was coming for her, luckily however, she was pushed to the side. Barely escaping the sword's reach.

"Xion, don't just stand around like that!"

"H-Hayner, what're you doing here?! It's too dangerous!"

"What are you talking about? I couldn't just leave you all alone..."

"Hayner..." She sighed. "...thanks..."

"Heh, anything for you!"

Xion's eyes widened when she saw another sword swing coming down at them, she quickly grabbed onto Hayner and rolled out of the way. They were so close, Xion could feel something something from Hayner's chest onto her chest. 'Is this what a heart feels like?' "You pay attention too," She said, letting go of Hayner.

"Y...Yeah..." He stammered.

They pulled each other up on their feet and finally faced the Orcus. "Listen to me." Xion looked at Hayner directly in the eye to which he nervously looked away. "You have to get out of here. I don't want you to get hurt."

"..."

The Orcus was approaching them, sword held out in front of its armor clad chest. Xion saw the determined look on Hayner's face, and right then, she realized no matter what she could say, he'd never leave her. "...Hayner. Don't let go of my hand," She said.

He squeezed her hand signaling for Xion to take off. She ran as fast as she could, maneuvering past each sword slash and jab until she was able to get completely behind the Orcus by sliding under its legs. With the Orcus out of the way, she could see Roxas lying on the ground, his keyblade still in his grasp.

"Roxas!" She ran over and shook him. "Are you okay?!"

"Ugh...yeah..." He turned over on his back. "My head's killing me though, I think something fell on my head."

"We gotta get you out of here," Hayner said. "Can you get on your feet?"

"Kind of."

Xion and Hayner helped Roxas get back on his feet. "Thanks..." He muttered.

"Roxas...do you remember that heartless?" Xion asked.

"How could I forget?" He cranked out a smile "Took me almost dying to get you talk to me!"

"That's rough man," Hayner said.

"Be serious you guys! We still have an Orcus to defeat!"

Roxas summoned his keyblade. "Yeah, I know."

He stood by Xion, prepared to finish it off together, just like they did that day long ago. However, before either of them could take a step, the Orcus' body sliced in half. Roxas and Xion exchanged confused glances, but ran forward anyways to the mesh of darkness in order to release its captive heart.

"Xion, on my mark!"

"Ready whenever you are!"

Roxas thew his keyblade at the Orcus and Xion threw hers. Their keyblade's intertwined with each other as they spiraled to its target and the resulting impact decimated the creature, leaving only a single heart in its place.

Hayner stared at the heart floating above in the sky. "It's kinda weird how something so fragile can be trapped in a huge monster like that."

"Yeah, but I like that we're able to turn monsters into something better, you know..." Roxas turned to Xion. "Maybe we're not so different from them. Even if the heartless look like monsters, we still all seek the same thing we lost."

Xion smiled. "...That so doesn't sound like you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean come on, you trying to sound deep sounds funny coming from you."

"Maybe 'cause I picked it up from you!"

"Hey!" Xion pushed on Roxas. "At least sounding all deep and philosophical fits me!"

They both laughed, despite being surrounded by debris, they kept each other company. Their shared laughter naturally died down and Roxas, suddenly remembering something, faced Xion quipped with his usual cheeky grin. "So, who do you think won?" Roxas asked.

"Won? Oh...right! I got 6."

"6..." Roxas rubbed the back of his head. "Funny. I got that too."

"Ok, then we need a tiebreaker. I'd say the Orcus, but someone else got to it first, we just cleaned up."

"Who do you think cut that big thing in half anyways? Definitely couldn't of been by these guys in Twilight Town."

"Then it was an Organization member."

"Right, someone who finished their mission early."

"And someone who knew we'd be down here..."

"Axel!" They said in unison.

"—Bingo!" Axel yelled, he jumped down from the rooftops and startle them both.

"Axel! You're finally here!" Xion exclaimed. "Sure took your time, huh?"

"Yeah, you missed out on the whole thing!"

"What? You guys didn't even get the ice cream yet, looks to me like I didn't miss that much."

"Oh! Speaking of, me and Xion we're in a competition to see who could kill the most heartless and we ended up with a tie. Any ideas for a tiebreaker?"

"...I got it, we'll play a guessing game. I'm thinking of a number right now and you two try to guess it, whoever guesses the closest wins!" Axel suggested. "Alright, go!"

"...13!" Roxas yelled out.

"Roxas that's just your own number...I bet you're thinking of the number 8!"

"Tch, nice try, but you guys are both wrong. The correct answer is 35...so Roxas wins!"

"What?! That's such a random number!"

"I was just thinking how much munny ice cream costs for the three of us."

"That's so not fair."

"—HEY! YOU GUYS OK?!" Olette called out while she and Hayner ran up to them. "...We were worried about you, Hayner, when we didn't see you on the train."

"Nah I'm fine. What about you guys?"

"We're all ok, everyone else is trying to get out of Sunset Terrace so it's a bit of a mess back at the train station." Olette supplied.

"They're holding another summer festival a month from now, I sure hope those things don't come back anytime soon," Pence said.

"Think we can make it next month?" Roxas asked to Xion and Axel.

"Depends on the boss and his lapdog are 'feeling'." Axel snided.

"Well, we'll be waiting for you guys regardless," Hayner said, he then turned to Xion. "Uh, you got a moment?"

"Sure." Xion walked with Hayner a little ways past the group, when he stopped, she asked, "Need something?"

"..." Hayner stared at the ground, noticeably avoiding her gaze. "Can I show you a place, it'll only be like 5 minutes."

"What place?"

"Sunset hill. Come on!"

Xion followed Hayner up onto a grassy hill with a railing enclosing the area. Xion gazed over the railing and could see all of Sunset Terrace as well as the edges of main Twilight Town and the train that ran through it. The view coupled with the sunset that hung over them was intoxicating. "This is so beautiful!" Xion gushed. _'No matter how often I come to this world, there's always something new to admire.'_

"Right? I'd love to go here more if train tickets weren't so expensive." He rested his arms on the railing, slightly warm from the sun's glow. "I've been meaning to ask, you ever scared by those black things?"

"The heartless? No. Not at all. Hard to be scared of something you fight everyday."

"You and me...we're from two completely different worlds, aren't we?"

"Definitely."

"Guess that means there's no way of me joining whatever club you guys are in."

"Definitely not. Unless you're willing to stop being human."

"Huh? Stop being human?!"

"Nevermind...besides, I'm happy to have a friend like you that's so different from me."

"...yeah, friend." He sighed and his head sunk. 'I'm such an idiot...I really thought I could win her over, but she already likes that other guy, I should've known.'

"You ok, Hayner?"

"It's nothing...now it's my turn to ask a question."

"Go ahead."

"How do you feel about that Roxas guy?"

"I like Roxas of course, he's my friend."

"I know that, but do you have a crush on Roxas?"

"Do I have a what on him?"

"You don't know what that means? Well, having a crush is this dumb feeling you get when you're around someone and you want to be with them forever. You don't just wanna be friends with them, you really, reallly like them and you never want to leave their side."

Xion snorted. "That sounds like an obsession."

"Heh, that about sums it up."

"And you think that's how I feel towards Roxas?"

"I thought so, but maybe you two are just friends after all."

"I don't know. I guess I'll find out soon." She stood back. "They're all waiting for us down there, wanna go back?"

"Nah. I'm gonna stay here a little bit longer."

"See you later then." Xion walked away from him, while making her way down the hill, she stopped abruptly. "You guys can come out now," She said sharply.

Roxas and Axel walked out from the crevice between two buildings. "What were you guys talkin' about?" Roxas asked.

"He just asked if I had a crush on..." Her eyes were drawn to Roxas. "...someone...Ugh, it's not important!"

"Yeah right, you're hiding something, aren't you? Your face is getting red." Axel teased.

"Shut up! Let's just go already before Saïx finds out we're gone." 'I don't get it...why am I so embarrassed? It's not like I feel anything towards him, one way or the other, I don't have a heart to feel.' She looked back towards Axel and Roxas who were snickering behind her back. 'I guess there's more to being a nobody than I thought.'

XxXX

**Day 99**

"A test of...endurance?" Xion asked.

"Yes, the same test Roxas has competed prior. Starting the day after tomorrow, I'd like to task you with more challenging missions, but you must complete this test first in order to see whether or not you're suitable for said challenging missions. It would be a waste for you to die by a misplaced mission." Saïx explained.

"What type of missions will I get if I pass?"

"You'll be able to go on missions where you defeat incredibly powerful heartless, the boss you could say. As well as go to Organization facilities other than this castle, there will also be a weekly sparring session I'll allow you to participate in."

 _'That sounds pretty exciting! Especially the part about going to other Organization facilities.'_ "...so then what happens if I fail?"

"Nothing. You'll simply carry out your missions as usual, but Lord Xemnas will take note of your failure. Take that as you will."

He continued. "In any case, your endurance test will take place in Hollow Bastion, you're to collect 50 hearts before sundown."

"Hollow Bastion? Should I stay hidden?"

"Preferably. Recon in that world has yet to be complete."

"Okay. I'll get right on it, sir!" Xion approached Axel and Roxas, excited to tell them the news.

"Hey guys!" She greeted.

"You look happy," Roxas said.

"Yeah, did Saïx say you could get the day off?" Axel asked.

"Nope! I'm taking my endurance test in Hollow Bastion, and as soon as I pass it, I'll be in the same league as you two."

"Aw, guess we can't tease you about that anymore, huh," Axel said. "So what's the objective?"

"Kill 50 heartless before sundown."

Roxas shook his head. "Is that it? I had to kill like 75 heartless in Agrabah with Xaldin! It was a total pain the neck!"

"I think Xaldin just made you do more, you know how he is," Xion said. "Anyways, I better get going, I'm sure Saïx is counting this in with my time. Wish me luck."

"Like you'll need it," Axel said.

"He's right. You're awesome with the keyblade, you should be back in no time."

 _'Let's hope so.'_ Xion opened a dark dark portal and went through.

OoO

Xion arrived in Hollow Bastion midday. The city was alive as ever and crowds of people swarmed the streets, shopping, eating out at restaurants, or just enjoying the day. And there she was, in the middle of it all, trying to navigate past all the people. Eventually she found a clearing in what appeared to be the remains of an old fountain.

 _'The best way to find heartless-'_ Her keyblade formed in her hand. _'Let them come to you!'_ The keyblade, being the magnet for darkness as it was, attracted several shadows that surrounded her instantaneously. Xion acted efficiently, first placing a stop spell on the heartless, then throwing her keyblade in a circle, like a windmill.

After the keyblade made its rounds, the pitch black shadows became bright pink hearts that covered the sky. Xion pulled back. _'If this keeps up I'll be done a lot sooner than I thought.'_ Just as the thought formed in her head, a cluster of shadows emerged from the ground. Xion took off, preparing for a ground attack, but before she could destroy them, an oversized shuriken sliced them in half.

"What...no, nevermind, there's more!" She could hear more heartless behind her cultivate from the overarching shadows. However, like the last time, the heartless were quickly defeated by an array of kunai knives.

"Again?! What's going on?!" Xion grumbled.

"Fear not traveler!" Announced a voice that had a certain familiarity to it. "It is I; Yuffie Kisaragi, the single white rose of Hollow Bastion, here to rescue you!"

"...!" _'I have to get out of her sight!'_ Xion ran behind an old fixture by the fountain and a young ninja jumped out into the open.

"Huh, where they go?" Yuffie asked.

"I think you were seeing things," Leon said, walking beside her.

"Whatever you say, Squall."

"Leon."

"Again with 'Leon'? But we're back in Hollow Bastion now, aren't we?"

"I won't accept that name again until all of Hollow bastion is back to its former glory." He took out his famed silver gunblade and pointed it a few inches past Yuffie's head where several more shadows manifested.

*click

*bang-bang-bang

Leon slid the gunblade back into its holster. "We still have a long way to go."

Yuffie rolled her eyes. "Geez, do you always have to be so negative? Once we get the stuff from Ansem's castle for Cid, 'Claymore' will be up in no time and we won't have to play patrol anymore."

"Right, Tifa should be at the Bailey by now waiting for us, let's not keep her waiting."

She raised an eyebrow. "Just Tifa?"

"Cloud said he wasn't feeling well, so Aerith is looking after him at Merlon's."

"Wow, I can't believe Tifa would actually give Aerith such a privilege," She said with playful sarcasm.

"I think there's a mutual understanding of their relationship. With that said, ready to depart?"

"Sure!"

Xion watched Yuffie and Leon run down the alley. _'I should follow them too.'_ She trailed behind them via the rooftops. _'Ansem's castle is the source of all heartless in this world, this is a perfect opportunity.'_

OoO

Yuffie and Leon reached a stopping point outside the bailey of Ansem's castle where Tifa waited. She was melodically tapping her foot on the ground and had an unusually drawn out expression—a clear sign they took too long for her liking. "You guys sure took your time, I thought I'd had to come get you myself," She said, sounding as pissed as she looked.

"Uh, sorry, we got sidetracked along the way by heartless." He chose his words carefully knowing how scary she could get when angry. "How does it look from the inside?"

"Not good. The place is packed with heartless, it'll take forever to comb through them all."

"We're looking for a few Mythril crystals, right? Mythril should be easy to find," Yuffie said. "I bet we can find some in the restoration site."

"You're thinking of Mythril shards, crystals are the finest type of Myhtril and exactly what Cid needs." Tifa explained. "Let's think of a way to infiltrate the castle and start from there. We'll have to clear that place out too...eventually, might as well see just how hard it'll be."

 _'...With my keyblade, I won't have any problem!'_ Xion slipped past the three while they were forming a plan of their own and made her way down the restoration site. Along the way, she slayed the heartless that stood in her way of reaching the postern, giving her a false sense of security that was taken away from her the moment she entered the castle's postern.

 _'There's so many heartless, I can barely see past the postern.'_ Gripping her keyblade with unwavering fortitude, she stepped forward and swung gallantly at the horde of shadows.

There were so many shadows they piled up on top her, Xion, thinking as fast as they were attempting to bury her in a pit of darkness, casted a newer spell she learned recently. "Fira burst!" She spit out, a cluster of fireballs launched from her keyblade. It destroyed most of the shadows on top of her, but that merely gave way for more, stronger heartless, some of which she'd never seen before, to gang up on her.

Suddenly, Xion felt a heavy blow in her stomach and she flew backwards, rolling onto her back. "...Ugh..." She struggled to get back on her arms. "...I just...have to try something else..."

"—LOOK OUT!"

Xion felt the embrace of another person holding on tight to her, looking up with widened eyes, Xion realized Tifa was holding her in her clutches. They landed softly on the other side of the heartless swarm and Tifa set her down.

"You ok?" Tifa asked.

Xion nodded in a cautious manner, wondering if Tifa saw Sora in her, but so far she had no reaction to her appearance.

"...Alright. Be careful next time, ok? You could've got seriously hurt, don't take on these things alone if you can't handle it." She was gentle and motherly when scolding Xion, if felt comforting in a way she couldn't describe.

Tifa turned around, back against Xion. "Leon, Yuffie, let's go!"

By her command, Yuffie and Leon came running in. Yuffie dashed ahead of Leon while doing some sort of ritual with her 4-point shuriken. As she was closing in on the heartless, she leaped high up into the air and pounded the ground. "Landscaper!" She yelled.

The ground beneath the heartless shook with the ferocity of an earthquake, sending the lightweight heartless flying in the air.

"Leon, it's on you," Yuffie said.

Leon, already having his gunblade loaded and positioned, shot the heartless in the air while Tifa began punching the heavyweight heartless still stationed on the ground.

Xion watched the team destroy the heartless one by one, and soon, she felt compelled to join in herself. 'I'll help you guys out just like you helped me!' Summoning her keyblade, she ran in beside Tifa. "...Thank you..." Xion said.

Tifa punched another heartless into the ground. "Don't mention it, I see you also have the keyblade with you..." She paused to dodge an incoming punch from a large armour heartless. As the heartless stumbled forward, she quickly grabbed it by the arm and flipped it over like it was nothing. "...Good to know our efforts won't go to total waste," She finished.

Xion gawked at how fast Tifa's reflexes were despite being a mere human. She shook her head, not wanting to be distracted for too long, and stabbed the heartless lunging for her. _'These guys aren't regular humans, that's for sure.'_

With the 4 of them working together, they made quick work of the heartless and before long, Tifa finished off the last heartless with one final kick in the head. Tifa rubbed her hands together and stretched her back out. "Good work team, now we infiltrate the castle! Leon, are you ready?"

"Renzokuken is up and ready to go."

Tifa and Yuffie ran down the steps leading to the castle gates and pressed their backs against the door. They glanced at each other, then back at Leon, who reaffirmed them with a short nod. Tifa kicked the door open, unleashing a wave of heartless that poured from the inner castle and Leon charged inside, Yuffie followed close behind while Tifa stayed back, sighing.

' _We need to get those Mythril crystals so it can keep them at bay.'_ "...! Oh, I nearly forgot. What's your name any..." She looked around for Xion, another sigh escaped her breath when she realized her disappearance.

"Well if you're still here...thank you. I hope you'll come back at a different time when it's not so crazy, whoever you are."

OoO

 _'I hope I'm not too late!'_ Xion ran through the darkness and back into the contrastingly white Castle That Never Was. Xion breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Saïx was still in the Gray room tying up something at the back. She went up to him with her mission report clutched tightly in her hand.

"Here it is!" Xion huffed. "I'm finished with my test of endurance. I collected 50 hearts before sundown in Hollow Bastion."

Saïx glimpsed at Xion's mission report then tossed it aside, destroying a little piece inside her. "...You're officially competent enough to complete the next set of missions, be prepared because missteps won't be taken lightly."

"Yes sir!" She turned to walk away back into the darkness, ready to tell Axel and Sora the good news...as well as buy them ice cream.

XxXX

**Day 100**

Xion walked into the gray area, though, no one was there. Worried she missed out on something important, she was for once in her life relieved to see Saïx working at his desk. "What is my mission for the day?" She asked, walking up to him.

"I didn't assign you one because Lord Xemnas has requested your appearance. I advise you go to him at once, he is not as patient when it comes to direct orders."

"O-Oh...ok. Where can I find him?"

"In his study. It's at the end of the hall where Axel resides."

Xion left the Gray Room, back to worrying once again. _'What does the boss want with me? Did I do something wrong? Will he turn me into a dusk?'_ She was getting more and more nervous, her thoughts getting increasingly intrusive the closer she got to her destination, and then, she was there.

The door to Xemnas' study reached nearly to the top of the ceiling. Xion pressed on it and it creaked open. Inside, Xemnas was sitting at a desk, surrounded by hundreds of papers scattered all across the floor, stuffed in the bookshelf, and covering every piece of whatever furniture was present in the room.

_'He's so...disorganized...I would've never thought.'_

"There's a chair by the door," Xemnas said.

Xion moved the papers off the chair and sat down, waiting for Xemnas to look up at her with the usual emotionless express he gave everyone.

Xemnas set his pen down. "Xion...number XIV." He began.

"A-Am I in trouble?!" Xion blurted out.

"No, nothing of the sort. I simply want to ask you a few questions, then you may leave, is that suitable?" He spoke with an unprecedented calmness drastically different from the passively aggressive tone Saïx spoke in.

"Yes sir."

"Very well, my first question, how are you with the keyblade?"

"Really good. At least...I don't mean to brag when I say that, I think I'm competent."

"I see. Was it true you defeated a Darkside with one strike the day Roxas fell asleep?"

"It is."

"Do you believe you have the power to do that again currently?"

"Oh no sir."

Xemnas stopped briefly to jot something down. _'My theory was right. Their powers are interconnected.'_ "My second question, when you're on a mission and interact with the inhabitants of said world, do they remark anything particular of your appearance?"

"They say I look like a boy named Sora. I don't know who he is, but he's appeared in my dreams sometimes."

"Interesting."

"...Is it normal I'm having dreams of someone who I don't know?"

"Of course. They're your memories as a human, every nobody has some recollection of their memories as a human, even myself."

"You too?"

"Yes. I assume you've gone to Hollow Bastion recently? Have you heard of Ansem's Castle."

"I have."

"My human counterpart used to reside there, as have a considerable amount of the other Organization member's human counterparts."

*knock-knock

"You may come in."

The door swung open and Saïx walked in carrying only a handful of papers. "Lord Xemnas, I apologize for interrupting you, but it seems the printer has stopped working. I did manage to print out these papers in my hand."

"Are they last week's reports?"

"Yes sir."

With a sigh, Xemnas stood up from his desk and approached Saïx. "When will you learn to fix these problems on your own?"

"...I...I don't know sir." He admitted. "Technology has never been something that's ever wanted to cooperate with me."

"I suppose we all have our weak points."

while they left the room, they talked loud enough for Xion to listen in

"Is that so? Or does that exclude you, our almighty leader?"

"I'm not one to be egotistical. Compulsiveness is why we're down to only half our members, although you used to be compulsive as well. I suppose I hoped a few of them would calm down like you."

"Well, none of them remember what it felt like to have a heart. I'm surprised any of them even remembered having a brain."

"Hm. We are only nobodies..."

 _'...I can't hear them anymore.'_  Xion looked around his study. _'I don't think he'll notice if I just look around a little bit.'_ Standing up off her chair, she peered inside his notebook that lied on his desk. "...Let's see...oh, it's just a transcript of our conversation."

She snooped further and found an old note sticking out from the bookshelf, curious, she began reading his rather messy handwriting. "...As I've remembered my name and my purpose, I'm also starting to remember how it felt like to have emotions. Anger and sadness are easy to contextualize, but genuine happiness, the thought of love or to be loved, the desire to be with someone...they mean—"

"Nothing." Xemnas answered.

"AH! X-Xemnas!" Startled by his sudden appearance, she dropped the note on the floor. "I was just...uh...I was just ..."

"I take no offense to your intrusion. It's a mere document as a testament to my own research. I have hundreds of them." He took a seat back down at his cluttered desk. "Now onto my final question for you...when do you think your powers as a keyblade wielder first came to be?"

"That's an easy question. The day I saw Roxas as a friend, that's when the keyblade came to me."


	12. Lost Souls

**Day 117**

Xion entered the Gray Room, surprised to see Saïx leaning on the back wall talking to Axel. She approached them. "Good morning, Axel!" Xion greeted.

"Right back at ya!"

Saïx glared at Axel and in return, Axel smirked at him. "What? Oh I get...you're jealous, aren't you?"

"Don't insult me." Saïx snapped back, he then brought his attention to Xion. "Your mission today is with Axel. You are both to go to Castle Oblivion and retrieve the missing lab reports from our fourth and fallen member, Vexen."

"Boss isn't giving up on finding those reports anytime soon, huh?" Axel asked.

"Lord Xemnas believes he'll be able to replicate the results of Vexen's last experiment, but with the absence of memories. As always, you should try to find that witch as well, but that goes without saying."

"Gotcha." He turned to Xion. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah let's go!" She exclaimed.

Axel let out a small chuckle. "Someone's excited to go to a boring research facility."

"It's not boring if you've never been there before."

"Don't expect to frequent Castle Oblivion." Saïx cut in. "This is merely to test out your abilities and see how competent you are."

"Geez you sure do love to throw around 'competent' a lot." Axel quipped.

"It's a fitting word for practically any situation. Now go on, missions—"

"'Don't do themeslves', yeah, yeah. We're leaving already, damn." Axel created a dark portal with the snap of a finger. "Stay close. It's a little ways away from our castle and I wouldn't want ya getting lost," He said.

Xion stuck close behind Axel as he navigated through the darkness to find the way to Castle Oblivion. It was a thought process of thinking about the destination as much as it was remembering which way to go. Lucky for Axel, he had a fairly good memory of the pathway to Castle Oblivion due to going back and forth from there to their own castle so often.

"Here it is." Axel muttered under his breath. He tore open the veil of darkness and created an opening for them to walk in. "Ready?"

"Yeah." _'I think I remember how to get here...just walk in a straight line with the destination in mind. Should be easy.'_

The two nobodies walked into Castle Oblivion, it was really no different from the Castle That Never Was. Same the bleach white and empty interior only instead of long, winding halls that became synonymous with their castle, Castle Oblivion was refreshingly simple. The rooms were small and compact with a few steps up leading to the next room.

Axel noticed Xion's disappointed facial expression and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "There's not much to look at." He admitted.

"You're telling me..." She took a moment to study the room. 'Something about this place feels familiar, like something or someone is calling towards me...I wonder why that is.' "Hey, what's that black orb by the door?"

"That's nothing. Just leads to the different worlds you have in your memories. Memories are the big theme of this place, CO is essentially a research facility where we research memories."

"And that's because we nobodies only have our memories to go off of, right?"

"Correct. You sure did your research, kid."

"Kind of hard not to know about the thing that makes up your entire personality. Without memories, we'd just be zombies."

"You go that right."

"...So..."

"Sooo what?"

"So where do we start looking first?"

"The best place to start would be in The Organization's secret meeting spots."

Axel went to the opposite wall and created another dark portal. He walked through and Xion ran over to catch up with him. Just as soon as they walked in, they walked out into a parallel version of Castle Oblivion. The room they were in was larger and had several doors sprawling out to various parts of the castle and in the center laid a small round table where Organization members would have small talk, it also made for a perfect spot for Axel to sit down on. "This is the other side of CO where we nobodies hang out. I'd thought I show you both sides since the doors here will eventually lead you to out there."

"Oh, that's interesting."

"Yeah, just wish someone labeled all these doors 'cause it's a pain in the neck trying to figure your way out around here."

"Does that mean you don't know your way around here?"

"Not a clue."

Xion sighed, exasperated. "Wow, you're a big help, Axel."

"It's been a while, okay? I still get lost every time I come here 'cause everything just looks the same to me."

"That's no good. Well, do you at least have an idea of where Vexen keeps most of his work?"

"Nope. That's the one thing none of us has ever been able to find and I hoped they'd just forget about the whole thing, but boss is apparently a lot more persistent than I thought."

"Oh man, we're gonna be here for days trying to find what we need..."

"Yep. That's how it goes."

Xion shook her head. "This is no time to sulk!" She grabbed Axel's arm and pulled him to the door on the far left. "You go search here for Vexen's papers and I'll go search for them in the room to the right. And then we'll search in the room at the front if we don't find anything in either doors."

"Alright-Alright, but don't come crying to me when you find nothing."

"Like I'd ever."

With a click sounding that Axel closed the door, Xion went to the door at the far right and opened it up. She stepped through into a dark gray room with a staircase spiraling down to the bottom level and yet another door to the right. Naturally, she went down the staircase.

Downstairs, the room was small, containing only a bookshelf with more books disheveled on the floor than actually tucked inside the shelf. "What's this..." She picked up a book thrown across the floor. "This is just a book on magic spells." She went to pick up another book, there was a crumbled piece of paper inside with writing on it. "...I'm glad I went to CO, finally some time to read in solitude without Saïx ordering me around or listening to my co-workers give me an earful."

"...This must be something that guy who reads all the time wrote. I can't remember his name though, if he ever said it to me." She set the book down.

"—Zexion. He stayed cooped down here most of the time waiting for someone to try his magic out on. Imagine how excited he felt when Sora, came, huh? Still, it's kind of a dorky thing to do," Said a soft voice.

"Huh?!" Xion turned around. No one. "Who was that?! If you're here come out now!"

_'I guess that was all in my head.'_

Xion had one, last look around the cubicle room. _'No..this is Zexion's room, I have to look somewhere else.'_ She went back up the stairs and took the door to the right, the door she originally ignored. _'Let's hope my luck will be better this time around.'_

This room, unlike Zexion's, was littered with weapons and scorch marks on the ground and walls. "What happened here?" She spotted a few more reports and picked them up. "...Looks like whoever wrote this had a temper."

"—Larxene had a lot of pent up anger inside her. Do you wonder why that is? Insecurities maybe."

 _'That voice again.'_ "...Whoever you are, I promise not to hurt you. I'm only here to find some reports Vexen wrote."

"Vexen? That scientist is so full of himself, but he wasn't completely unsuccessful."

"And what do you mean by that?"

"I mean with you."

 _'Her voice is close.'_ Xion looked behind her and saw a young girl with long, pale blonde hair and a white dress. "O-Oh! You startled me!"

"Sorry, I guess I have a bad habit of doing that." She ended her sentence with a smile.

 _'Her smile...it feels nostalgic.'_ "...If you don't mind me asking, who are you?"

"Naminé, and you must be Xion. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Oh...I've heard about you in an old mansion in Twilight town. Your dusks mentioned you."

"I know. My office is at that old mansion, and my dusks told me all about you to me as well. Ever since then and I've been wanting to meet you at least once."

Xion couldn't help but to smile back at her with the same amount of wariness and cheer. "I didn't expect to meet someone like you in such a creepy place like this."

Naminé let out a small laugh. "I could say the same about you." She brushed away some of the weapons scattered on the floor and sat down on her knees. "I'm just here to draw pictures, that's all."

"What do you draw pictures of?" Xion asked, sitting next to her.

"Memories."

"Can I see?"

Naminé looked away from Xion shyly. "I..don't really like to show others my drawings directly from my sketchbook."

"Aw, come on, I won't laugh at you!"

"How about...I draw a picture of you instead!"

"You'll show me it, right?"

"Of course." She took out a small, white sketchbook and faced Xion. "You know something..."

"What's that?"

"...My dusks were right about you Xion. You do look a lot like me, but I think you're much prettier!" Naminé giggled when Xion's face slowly turned a dark shade of red. "...Ok...I'm done!" She showed Xion her drawing.

"Oh cool! That's so awesome!" The picture was little more than a simplistic drawing of Xion blushing against a blue background, but it meant the world to Xion. "You're really good!"

"Aw, thanks, it was fun to draw you! Here-" Naminé tore the page out and gave it to Xion. "That's for you. Don't lose sight of who you are, Xion."

"Thank you...you know...that sounds like you're leaving. Do you have somewhere to go?"

"Plenty of places. I move around a lot, so I don't get caught, but I'll see you again someday...or maybe you'll see me."

"I'll look forward to the day!"

Naminé gazed at Xion who was still marveling over her drawing. _'She's the nobody Vexen was talking on and on about that was supposed to be shaped by memories. Because she has Sora's memories, she should look like Sora to those who have met him, but it appears she's gained her own identity by being around that other boy. She's no longer a vessel for Sora's memories, but a girl named Xion.'_

"Me too." Naminé smiled to herself. _'I'll make sure to see her again soon.'_ With that, she vanished without a trace.

Xion stood up, she folded the drawing of her and carefully placed it inside her pocket. _'Naminé said she doesn't want to get caught, wonder who could be looking for her.'_ She walked outside the room and back into the main room with the round table. Axel was waiting there, back against the wall.

"Find anything?" Axel asked.

"Not really. I found some reports about the other members though."

"In other words you found nothing. Well, no need to worry, 'cause I'm empty handed too."

"There's still another room to look in."

"Yep. Let's go since you're so curious."

"Less curious and more of not wanting to return to Saïx empty handed."

"Good point." Axel followed Xion through the door at the front of the room and they walked back into the parallel room of CO where they began. Sighing, Axel rubbed the back of his head in frustration. "Doesn't look like this is the place either, damn, we'll have to comb through the other levels of the Organization's hideout."

"Wait, Axel, remember when you said that the worlds you go to depend on your memories? What if that's what Vexen did and so that's why you've never been able to find any traces of his work in CO."

"Yeah, but we'll need Vexen's memories to do that and he's not exactly here to give it up."

"We don't need them because you're here. You know Vexen better than me, so you should know where he would go."

"I mean, we weren't friends or anything. In fact, I...nevermind, I'll give it a try." Axel pressed his hand on the black orb and the door opened up. _'Hope this plan of hers works.'_ He ran through the door, Xion was about to follow him in, but seconds later he came running back out with scratches and bite marks on his face, not to mention the lower half of his cloak was torn to shreds.

"Axel, are you ok?! What happened?!"

"I'm fine, nothing here to worry about, but I don't think we'll be going that way anytime soon. There's way too many heartless."

Xion summoned her keyblade, she moved towards the door until she stopped herself when she got to the steps. 'This same thing happened before in Hollow Bastion and I nearly died because of it. I have to stop doing things by myself.' Her keyblade disappeared from her grasp, she then turned to Axel who nodded in approval.

"Looks like you're not as much of an idiot as I thought." Axel teased.

"You learn from experience...So, let's report this back to Saïx since we have a lead and go get some ice cream, how about it?"

"Now that sounds like a plan."

OoO

"I forgot to ask you," Xion said, she bit off a chunk from her ice cream. "What world did you have in mind back in CO?"

"Hollow Bastion. I thought since Vexen used to live there when he was a human he'd have some attachment to that place."

"Geez, how many Organization members came from Hollow Bastion?"

Axel took a moment to count on his fingers. "A lot." He answered.

"Axel!" Xion shoved Axel and they both started laughing.

Axel finished off the last of his cream and chewed on the tick, a habit he picked up from Roxas. "Those guys aren't even worth remembering, gotta save my brain space for more important things."

"Like?"

"Like sleeping and...you guys too...but I think you and Roxas are a little more important than me taking a nap. Just a little bit though."

"Gee thanks, good to know we're a little more important than you sleeping. Which reminds me, where is Roxas anyways? He's never been this late before, think he's gonna come?"

"Don't know. He's partnered up with Xigbar so who knows what those two are up to."

"You're right about that, but it's not like I've been getting partnered up with the other guys."

"I think it's because you weren't qualified. You've just recently became a full fledged member after you passed your test of endurance."

"True. Hey, did you have to do one of those too?"

"Yeah, but that was a super long time ago. Back then Xemnas personally assigned us our missions."

"Oooh? What did you guys do then since none of you had the keyblade?"

"Mostly recon and reports. We had to carve out paths through the darkness and find each world and we're still not done with that process yet. We also got to train our own specialized dusks and every so often we'd go looking for new recruits."

"How'd you find them? New recruits I mean."

"Well I only went recruiting once with the boss, that was my 'test of endurance'. At that time me and him found Marluxia in the darkness, so I assume his world got lost to the darkness. Can't say much about the others since usually boss would pick Xigbar or go solo. I wouldn't be surprised if he found someone who looked suitable enough and took their hearts away just like that."

"Sounds like things were a lot different back then they are now."

"You're telling me."

"Well, if you know where Marluxia came from...do you know where I came from?"

"What?"

She continued. "Like, whenever I sit here and eat ice cream with guys, I get the strangest feeling that I used to watch the sunset with someone else...somewhere else. Or when I'm by the sea..." Xion pulled out a seashell and showed Axel. "When I see the water and seashells, I think a hear voice inside my head calling to me. It's weird."

"Those are just your memories. It's perfectly normal, don't worry about it."

"But it's not. A while ago when I went on missions to other worlds, they used to call me Sora and talk to me as if I knew them. It's just...I feel like some of these memories I have aren't even mine."

"Axel...are you even listening?"

"Yeah, I'm listening, but I don't have a clue why they think that. Maybe because you look like Sora...whoever that is."

"But Sora's a boy and has spiky brown hair! What're you trying to say?"

"N-Not that you 'look-look' like Sora, but that you...might have the same color eyes as him or something."

"Uh huh..." Xion sighed. "I don't understand any of this, but Roxas told me he gets mixed up for Sora too sometimes. I hope this is a nobody thing."

"It's a nobody thing, definitely. No doubt about it."

"Do you get mixed up with someone else too?"

"Tough question. No one really says anything about how I 'look'."

"...You really are no help...well, whatever the case may be, I'm glad they're starting to see me as 'Xion' from now on."

XxXX

**Day 118**

Xion woke up to sound of a rhythmic melody that came from Demyx strumming his sitar. _'Haven't heard that in a while.'_ After fixing her bedhead hair, she left her room and went into the Gray Room only to find it completely empty, not even Saïx was there at his usual spot. There was, however, a note on the main table that read 'OPERATIONS CLOSED FOR VACATION'.

 _'Vacation? That's when you get to take a break. Sure looks like everyone took the chance.'_ Xion heard the harsh noise of metal clashing as it echoed down the hall, curious, she trailed the steady and sharp clanks of metal that rung across the walls. Eventually she was lead into an open area at the back of the castle where Xaldin and Saïx were sparring. _'Even those two are taking a break. So then this is for real! I gotta go find Axel and Roxas!'_

A dark portal manifested on the back wall beside Xion. Through the darkness, she found only Roxas sitting at the clock tower. "Is Axel taking a nap for his day off?" She asked, walking over to him.

"Oh hey Xion!" Roxas greeted. "And yeah he's taking a nap, he said he'd take a nap six times a day if he could."

"Heh, sounds like Axel. So what're you doing for your day off?"

"I dunno. What're you doing?"

"Hm...I think I'm going to practice summoning."

"That sounds cool!"

"Yeah, care to join?"

"I would, but doing work on my day off kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? I'll have to pass."

Xion rolled her eyes. "Whatever. If you decide to stop being lazy, I'll be here in Twilight Town." She jumped off the clock tower and descended to the ground via jumping off several smaller buildings. _'So Vivi said he'd be by the sandlot last time. That's where I'll go.'_ She took off into the direction of the sandlot and like she predicted, Vivi was there pacing around with several magic books surrounding him.

"Hey Vivi!"

Vivi ran up to Xion as soon as he saw her. "Oh, Xion! Guess what? I've been looking in some magic shops around town and found some of the summon charms you were talking about last time."

"That's great, can I see them?"

"Mm hm." Vivi dug into his pocket and gave her a slightly rusted, silver charm. "I've been reading these magic books all day to find out how to work them, and so far I'm pretty sure you're supposed to use your magic on these charms here to temporarily call a friend from another world and bring them to wherever world you're in and they'll help you in battle. In theory at least, I've never summoned anything before."

"Really, but I was hoping you could help me out...well, I guess I'll give it a try." She studied the charm in her hand. There was a fire insignia engraved on it. "Do you think I should use fire magic?" She showed Vivi the insignia and he nodded, so she applied a bit of fire magic to the charm.

"...Nothing." Xion muttered.

"Don't give up so easily! Here, I have another one," He handed her another charm with a sparkle engraved on it. "Just try some more fire magic, I don't think it matters what type it is."

Applying more fire magic to the charm resulted in... "No results," Xion said, she let out an exasperated sigh then looked to Vivi with pleading eyes.

Vivi adjusted his conical hat. "S-Sorry, those were the only charms I could find. And there's no way I can do it, I'm just a black mage."

"—The let a white mage do it!" A high-pitched voice said from behind them.

"H-Huh!?" Vivi squeaked.

A little girl with bright purple hair that was no bigger than Vivi, stomped over to Xion and snatched the charm right from her hand. Though, upon closer inspection, she appeared to be more than just a 'little girl' as she not only had a horn sticking out just above her forehead, but a pair of small white wings on her back. "What the heck do you think you're doing? Trying to melt the thing?!" The little girl yelled.

"E-Eiko! You're back?!" Vivi burst out. "I've looked for you and-and Zidane, and Garnet, but I could never find you guys. I thought you all hated me and-"

Eiko threw her arms around Vivi and hugged him tight, stopping him from blubbering any more words. "You know, after all this time...I thought you'd be a little bit less of a crybaby," She said.

"...Eiko..."

Xion bent down to their level. "Little girl, were you lost?"

"What's it *sniff* to you, huh? And I'm not a little girl!" She shot back.

"It's ok. She's my friend too," Vivi said.

After wiping her tears away, Eiko turned around to Xion with a red and blotchy face. "...my name is Eiko Carol."

"I'm Xion! Nice to meet you."

"Now that we know each other, I guess I can tell you a couple things. For one, I used to live here in Twilight Town until some witch and her fat, ugly cat lackey kidnapped me so I could summon monsters for them. I finally managed to escape through one of their portal thingies when that witch's cat wasn't looking and that's how I ended up here. The end." She faced Vivi. "...So where's Zidane and Garnet anyways?"

"They went looking for you, but they never came back..."

"Then we have to find them!"

"But..But where do we look? Where do we even start? They're in another world far away from here and we have no way of getting there."

"I'll look for your friends then." Xion offered.

"You'd do that?" Eiko asked.

She nodded. "I travel to many different worlds, I won't have any problem searching for them."

"Ok...so there's Zidane, he's about your height, he has short blonde hair and dreamy blue eyes with this cute little monkey tail. And then there's Garnet, she's really pretty and has super long black hair and...and she wears a bright orange jumpsuit. You can't miss either of them." Eiko explained.

"I'll keep that in mind and whenever I look for them, I'll be sure to bring them back to you guys."

"Then promise me, that way I know you'll stay true to your word." Eiko held her pinky out.

Xion latched her pinky onto Eiko's. "I promise."

"...Wow, you are pretty great. Didn't expect that from someone dressed like that...Alright, I made my mind up, I'll teach you how to summon."

 _'What does she mean by someone dressed like that.'_ "Thank you! So how do you it?"

"Unlike what Vivi taught you, you're not supposed light the thing on fire, otherwise it won't work." Eiko glared at Vivi and he pulled his hat down in embarrassment. "What you're supposed to do is use your soul to call them and then use your magic to transport them between realms."

"Huh?"

"I know that sounds complicated, but it's really easy. You basically have to ask them to help you out and then apply some holy magic. Light spells are the best to use, but you can use alternative magic too...I think."

"You sure do know a lot about this stuff."

"I'm a white mage after all, I was built for this type of stuff."

"Wait...what's a light spell?"

"Spells that use light the same way you'd use fire or thunder," Vivi explained. "They're tricky to learn, but for a keyblade wielder like yourself, it should be a piece of cake. Spark is a pretty simple spell to learn, you just draw the light from within you and attack."

 _'She makes it sound like I'm a natural.'_ "...What about those alternative spells?"

"I meant spells like magnet, gravity, sleep, you know those useless spells that only work about 50% of the time," Eiko said.

"I know plenty of those spells, can I try it out?"

"Well...yeah...technically... I have no idea what happens if you use those other spells, but go for it."

Eiko tossed the sparkle charm to Xion and she clenched it tightly in her palm. _'Please, can you help me? I wish to summon you.'_ When she casted sleep magic on the charm, it started glowing and a small fairy in a green dress appeared in her hand...asleep.

"...Wow! It really worked this time!"

"Yeah, but she's asleep. I guess that means whatever alternative magic you use affects the summon as well, it's a good thing you used sleep and not something super negative," Eiko said.

Xion picked the fairy up by the wings and shook her awake. "Hi! It's nice to—" The fairy, angered by her rude awakening, yanked Xion's ear and gave her an earful. Thankfully, all she could hear was tiny bells ringing in her ear.

Vivi and Eiko watched Xion getting scolded by the small fairy and started laughing.

"You guys, I could use some...OW!" Xion swatted the fairy away from her hair and the fairy stuck her tongue out in response.

"Ugh! Could you just..." Xion took a deep breath. ' _Getting mad won't help, lets try this again.'_ "I'm sorry...we got off on the wrong foot, my name is Xion, what's yours?"

"I won't wake you up like that again! Come on, just say your name... pleeeeease?" She pleaded.

The fairy spoke in more bell sounds. Xion blankly stared at her so instead, the fairy made a gesture with her hand as if she was hammering on something.

"...building...?"

"She's obviously fixing something so her name is fix-y," Eiko said.

The fairy shook her head.

"Build-y?"

She shook her head again.

"Make-y?"

"Eiko, you can't just add -y to the end of words and says that's a name," Vivi said. "We know her name has to be based on her craft...maybe she's a tinkerer."

The fairy nodded her head.

"Tinkerer? Does that have something to do with your name?"

She nodded her head and made more bell sounds.

Xion thought for a moment. "...Tinkering...what name has something to do with that..."

The fairy sighed, she left and came back moments later with a stick. She drew her name in the sand big enough for the three of them to see. "...Oh...Tinkerbell." Xion muttered, a bit embarrassed she didn't get it sooner.

"Tinkerbell." She repeated. "It's nice to meet you! You're really cute you know!"

Tinkerbell fluttered her wings in happiness. She pecked Xion on the forehead and suddenly she felt her body and magical powers rejuvenate. "Thank you! I feel so much better now!" Since the transportation magic had run out, Tinkerbell returned to her own world and the charm returned to Xion's palm.

Holding the charm to her chest, she smiled widely at Eiko and Vivi. "Thank you too...Vivi...Eiko, for helping me to learn how to summon. I'm gonna get going now, my friends are waiting for me, but I'll definitely be back for some more practice!"

"No problem. We'll just have to work in your light spells next time, don't think you're getting out of it either," Eiko said.

"Yeah, maybe we can even work on some advanced elemental magic," Vivi said.

"I'll be happy too!"

"Oh, and Xion one more thing," Eiko said suddenly. "Thanks for keeping Vivi company."

OoO

"Hey you guys! How'd I know you two would be up here?"

"Same way we know you'd come up here eventually," Roxas said.

Smiling, Xion sat down next to Roxas with three ice creams in hand. "Don't think I'd forget about the ice cream," She said while she passed them out to her friends.

Axel bit off a huge hunk from his ice cream. "Man, perfect treat after the long, grueling day I went through," He said.

"Totally. Sleeping sure does take a toll on you." Xion sarcastically remarked.

"That's for sure."

"Heh...so Xion, how did the training go? Did you manage to summon anything?" Roxas said.

"Yeah, I summoned a fairy named Tinkerbell, it was really cool seeing her in action."

"Sounds cool too," Axel said. "Had no idea your magic was coming along so far, feels like just yesterday you didn't even know what an ether was."

"Oh shut up, I've been practicing a lot lately with Vivi. I finally know Firaga now because of him."

"Aw really? You know fire is right up my alley, I could have showed you a few moves if you just asked!"

"Well...maybe you can teach some light spells. I'm having trouble with those."

"Hey, I'm pretty good with light spells! I'll teach you anytime you like!" Roxas offered.

"Well I don't know about you teaching me..."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that you don't seem like the mentor type considering you didn't even want get up to practice with me today."

"What good's a vacation day if you only work, right?"

"So what did you do on your vacation day anyways?"

Roxas sighed. "Nothing."

Axel joined in Roxas' sighing. "And then tomorrow it's right back to work."

"Maybe we'll get another vacation day soon, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, even Saïx," Xion said.

"...Oh, before I forget, I might not see you guys again for a little while," Axel said.

"Why?"

"They're sending me on recon for a few days."

"To..."

Axel chuckled at Xion's persistency. "Can't tell."

"What do you mean you 'can't tell'?" Roxas asked, a little annoyed.

"It's classified information."

"But I thought we were friends. Some friend you are keeping secrets like that."

He chuckled again at Roxas' temper. "I can't tell you guys ALL my dark secrets. Got it memorized? I bet you keep some things from me too."

"I do not!"

"Ha ha, I'm only kidding. If I tell you guys where I'm going, Saïx is gonna weed the answer out of the two you, and then he'll be pissed at all of us. And when he's pissed, he's not too light on the missions if you know what I mean."

"True."

"Just try not to mess things up while I'm gone 'cause I won't be there to help you guys through it."

"What're you talking about?! We're perfectly capable on our own," Xion said.

"Well considering your track record..."

Xion grinned. "Hey, watch it! Don't make me come over there!"


	13. The Daily Things

**Day 119**

Xion and Demyx walked out of the dark portal, relieved to be back in the Gray room for once. "Man! That was one hell of a mission!" Demyx exclaimed. "I'm totally beat!"

 _'It's not like he even did anything...'_ "So do you have the mission report ready, Demyx? I'll hand it to Saïx if you want." Xion offered.

"Huh?"

"The report, remember? You were supposed to do the report since I fought the heartless, don't tell me you didn't do it!"

Demyx sheepishly scratched his cheek and let out a nervous laugh. "...I might of kinda sorta...forgot to do that."

"What?! But Demyx that was a super rare heartless, Saïx is gonna kill us when he finds out you didn't do the report! What're we gonna do?!"

"Don't worry about it, it's an easy fix, we'll just fake it!"

"How do we do that? There was so many heartless, I couldn't keep track of everything!"

"We don't need to." Demyx summoned a pencil and paper then quickly scribbled something down. "Saïx doesn't know what heartless we were supposed to do a report over, so that means we can make random stuff up and he won't know the difference. Trust me, it's worked before."

"If you say so…"

"—Xion, Demyx you're back already?" Saïx asked, walking in the Gray room. "How unexpected."

"Like you say x-face, efficient nobodies are sufficient nobodies." Demyx confidently approached Saïx with the pitiful report crumbled in hand and whipped it out in front of his face. "Aaand here's the report for the heartless we fought, gotta tell ya, sure gave us one hell of a—"

"Redo it."

"Wh-What?!"

"Either you rewrite that chicken scratch, you call a report or I'll assign you on the handful of other missions you never bothered doing."

"What're you saying?! I always do my missions!"

"Your short 27 reports, have failed to do recon in 3 worlds, have skipped out on nearly all, but 2 of your dusk training lessons...among other tasks. So you will hand me a better report and if you continue doing nothing, Lord Xemnas will turn you into nothing. Is that clear?" Saïx handed Demyx a new mission sheet. "There's a major heartless in Hollow Bastion, be diligent about it."

Saïx turned to walk away while Demyx turned back to Xion, a mix of frustration and annoyance settled across his face. "...I haven't been to Hollow Bastion, time to see what all the fuss is about."

"You're not upset about what Saïx said?"

"Nah, he just seems really pissed off. I better not step on too many toes or he'll blow up and I so don't wanna be the one who sets him off. So whaddya say?" He wavered the paper in her face. "Ready for part 2?"

She nodded.

"I don't know the way too well, so you'll have to tell me which way to go." Demyx started walking and a dark portal manifested in front of him for them to cross over into the realm of darkness.

OoO

They entered into the bustling town of Hollow Bastion and stood on the roof of a tall building. Xion motioned for Demyx to crouch down where she then relayed the mission entails for him, "Remember we have to stay hidden and we're looking for something called an 'Eliminator' heartless. According to the description, it's red, carries a large shield, and has incredibly high defense stats, you got that?"

"Yep. We're looking for a big red heartless, shouldn't be too hard to find."

"Right, so where do you think we should look first?"

"Dunno, wherever you want."

"Well, last time I came here, there was plenty at the old fountain, I think we should check that place out first!"

"Cool, lead the way."

Xion and Demyx bounded across the rooftops in order to reach their destination undetected. Soon, they found themselves at the old fountain, however not a single heartless was in sight.

"...Time to check somewhere else," Xion finally said after a thorough search of the empty fountain plaza.

"I say we should go to that creepy castle in the distance. Seems like the perfect place for heartless to hang out."

"We'll be taking a giant risk if it's not there, the heartless there are relentless."

"Then we'll just scope things out on foot, see where the most commotion is at you know." He slid his hood over his head. "Recon is way up my alley."

Xion did the same and covered her face. "In that case, you take the lead this time."

The two wandered into an alleyway and stopped just beyond the main town square. Demyx pressed his back against the wall, peeking his head out into the open to scope for any disturbances. "Nothing weird is happening here either, let's check..." He trailed off.

"Check what?"

"Demyx!" Xion tugged Demyx's sleeves. "Did you find anything?"

"Yeah, I found a really cute girl."

She rolled her eyes. "Let me do this instead." Xion moved Demyx out of the way and tried looking for anything suspicious herself. "...You're right, I don't see anything either, oh!" Among the crowd, she could pick out Aerith and Cloud bickering with each other while carrying several shopping bags full of supplies.

"...I remember those two."

"What? Really?"

"Yep, they look for heartless too, so if we follow them, we're sure to find our target."

"Good idea. Let's get back on the rooftops." Demyx found some footing on several disheveled bricks and climbed up the brick wall to the top of the roof. Xion followed behind and Demyx pulled her up when she neared the top.

"There they are," Demyx said.

Xion nodded and they began tracking Cloud and Aerith down, it wasn't until they went down into the quiet part of town where they were able to listen in on their conversation as well.

"—Do you really think this medicine is gonna help with these headaches?" Cloud asked.

"Probably not."

"You're being surprisingly negative."

"I get it from you."

"Are you being serious or is this you still being upset because I didn't let you use your last minute magic spells on me?"

"Both." She looked over to Cloud and smiled. "It just seems a little silly some store bought remedy is gonna cure your headache when nothing I've tried has worked so far. It's pretty obvious, to me at least, that what you're going through is not normal."

"It's not that big a deal. Even if this isn't normal, I can't afford to worry about it. We have to get rid of these heartless, they're getting worse by the day and pretty soon we'll lose Hollow—"

"Cloud, will you stop being like that? If you can't fight, we'll fight for you. We all promised never to lose Hollow Bastion again, we made that promise together."

"Aerith..." He muttered something else too soft for them to hear.

"...You don't have to say that." She finally said after a drawn out silence. "I know you'd do the same for us."

"Yeah...that reminds me, you notice something?"

"What is it?"

"We're out on patrol day and we have yet to find any heartless. Usually there's a few that leaks out from the Castle, but today we haven't found any. Not yet anyways."

"That is strange, maybe the heartless have a surprise for us in store today."

"Not sure why these surprises had to happen while we were on patrol."

"Oh lighten up Cloud, I think it's exciting. We just better get these supplies to Cid before anything."

"Hope this stuff is enough, but I don't know why he needs all this junk food."

"He's doing better, I'm glad he gave up smoking...even if it means he can't stop eating junk food."

"Heh, just hope he won't get a heart attack with all the crap he's putting in his body."

Aerith giggled. "We'll have to watch out for him."

They disappeared into a small building. When they were gone, Xion faced Demyx, a thought lingering in her mind. "We haven't encountered a single heartless since we came here either, you think something's up because of the major heartless we're after?"

"You might be right, look over there!"

Down below them, she saw a meager heartless crawl out from the shadows. The second it manifested into the world, an arm shot from the darkness and grabbed the heartless.

Another arm appeared that pulled the creature out from the depths of darkness. There stood a large, red heartless clad from head to toe in heavy armor with an oversized shield to match. The heartless cracked open its zigzag lined mouth and swallowed the heartless whole.

"Whoa! What the hell?!" Demyx gasped. "We're up against that thing?!"

"Yeah, sure does earn the name Eliminator heartless if it's eating heartless like that. Let's think of a plan first."

"...I got nothing."

Xion sighed. "...Me neither."

"Why don't you try some of your sleep magic or whatever."

"No, it's looks too powerful for me to try something like that. The tough ones are always immune to status alignment spells like that, trust me."

"Man, guess we have no choice." Demyx summoned his sitar, strumming a few off notes before breaking into a steady rhythm. "Dance water, dance!" He called out.

Several Demyx water clones surfaced and began attacking the Eliminator. Although, it took only a few seconds for the clones to be wiped out completely from one large swipe of the Eliminator's shield.

"Damn it...well he's for sure gonna get washed away with this move!" Demyx strummed a different tune that was faster and less structured. A giant tidal wave rose in front of them and collided onto the Eliminator, but that too took no toll on the armored heartless as it once again used its shield to tear the wave apart.

"Doesn't anything work on this heartless?!"

"We have to attack it from behind, otherwise that shield's gonna get in the way," Xion said.

"You're right."

Just as they were about to run to the opposite side, Cloud and Aerith came running out of the building, each wielding their respective weapons. Cloud acted first, he held his buster sword upward, taking a deep breath, then unleashed a devastating laser beam from his sword that carved a hole into the Eliminator's shield.

The Eliminator, switching from defense to offense, moved its shield in front of its body and charged at Aerith and Cloud.

"Damn it, any good ideas?!" Cloud yelled.

"I already got it covered!" Aerith followed up with a short ritual of her own. A summoning circle appeared in front of them and a huge green dragon with bright pink hair flew out. The dragon spit several fireballs at the Eliminator that made it topple down and fall onto its back.

"Alright! Good job, Elliot!" She cheered

Elliot nodded happily then disappeared back into the summoning circle.

"How did she summon that dragon?" Xion muttered, completely starstruck by the spectacle.

"Who knows, but I sure am glad we're not up against them," Demyx said.

"Yeah, come on, we have to fight too, otherwise we'll be left in the dust by those guys. The Eliminator is our target after all."

"...What? Since when was this a competition?"

"Since they'll destroy that thing and won't release a heart. None of them are keyblade wielders like me." Xion leaped off the tall building they were standing on and threw her keyblade like a dagger at the Eliminator's head. She appeared to where her keyblade was and drove it into its head.

The Eliminator's hand swatted Xion off its head and it used its shield to heave itself back up on its feet. ' _That didn't do much, I should go for its chest.'_ She was about to make another move when the head of the heartless sliced off completely and fell on the ground. _'Looks like he already finished it before me.'_

Following its head, the arm carrying its shield fell off with a thundering tremor and then its other arm fell off. Xion, acting quickly, threw her keyblade again at the center of its back and the once terrifying heartless turned into a cluster of released hearts.

"Now we know where all the heartless went," Cloud said, he returned his Buster sword into its holster.

"I told you. We should tell everyone the good news!"

Cloud and Aerith returned to the small building while Xion returned to the rooftops where Demyx was waiting. "Ready to go back home?"

"Uh yeah..." He said in a detached tone.

"Is there something wrong?"

"No, no, it's just that all this fighting is such a pain the neck."

"You don't like fighting that much, huh? It's not my favorite thing to do in the world, but it's not like we have a choice."

"That's the thing, going to all these words and watching people from the shadows makes me feel kind of jealous. I wanna do all the things I watch those people do, like I used to."

"They still fight the heartless though, just like us."

"I know that, but they can have fun and do dumb stuff together without having to worry if someone's gonna turn you into a dusk for being lazy or not. They have the freedom to do whatever they want, but for us, we don't have a choice."

"..."

"...Sorry, I just kinda spoke without thinking. Let's turn this mission in and go home."

"Don't worry...you're not the only one who feels that way."

"Yeah? I guess I don't feel like a complete weirdo after all."

OoO

Roxas waved to Xion when he saw her walking towards him. "Oh, hey, you're finally here. You sure took your time!"

"It's been a long day...I had to go on two missions in one day."

"What-why?"

"Demyx didn't do the report for the first mission soooo Saïx sent us on a new one to Hollow Bastion." She plopped down next to Roxas. "I'm totally exhausted."

"Yeah, you sound like it."

"What about you? Have fun on your mission?"

Roxas snorted. "Nope. I was at Beast's Castle with Xaldin and he sure made things as un-fun as they could possibly be. You remember Beast, right?"

"How could I forget..."

"Well it turns out he really cares about something, but Xaldin said it was a weakness."

"Why would he say that? If anything, caring a lot about something makes you stronger."

"That's what I thought too. Guess it was just Xaldin being a jerk 'cause he doesn't have anything to care about."

"Heh, funny how we're all so different even though we all have the same thing in common. Demyx told me how much he wanted to be normal again and I felt really bad for him...I mean...think about how much better it would be if we could live our lives as normal people again."

"We could have ice cream whenever we wanted!"

"That's...one way of looking at it." She smiled. "Roxas, let's make sure we all hang out together whenever we become human!"

"Definitely!"

XxXX

**Day 120**

Xion skimmed through the mission report Saix gave her earlier then placed it back into her coat pocket. _'I need to collect 35 hearts, that doesn't seem too bad, but at a place like this...'_ Surrounding her was the twisted yet vibrant world of Wonderland. From her departure in the Gray room, she steered clear away from Tugley Woods while navigating the darkness and decided to enter Wonderland at the clearing just outside of the maze like forest.

' _I just hope I won't have to fight another Roxas clone again.'_ She was only a few steps down the winding yellow path that would soon lead to Mad Hatter and March Hare's Tea party before she heard a sharp cry for help coming near Tugley Woods.

Xion's keyblade formed in her hand and she ran down the path until she saw a young girl in blue running away from a gang of shadows. Picking up speed, she leapt high up into the air and destroyed the heartless with one quick slash from her keyblade. "You okay?" She asked the girl.

"Why, I am now. Thank you!" The girl cheerily replied. "My name is Alice, it's a pleasure to meet someone helpful around here for once."

"My name is Xion, though I can't say I'm 'around' here."

"Neither am I. Say, Xion would you mind escorting me for the time being? I've been trying to find my way home for some time, but those nasty heartless keep attacking me and I always end up back where I started. If you're here with me, then I'm sure to get back home." Alice explained.

"Do you have any idea of where to go?"

"Not really, but I have been..." She went quiet.

"You have been what?"

"Uh...well, now that I think about it, it sounds quite silly, but I've been following this peculiar White Rabbit around."

"It's better than nothing, right? Let's give it a shot!"

"Okay!"

Alice held Xion's hand and they began their journey through Wonderland in search of the White Rabbit. "Can I ask, Xion, if you're not from around here, then where are you from?"

"I live in this giant castle in the middle of a city with my friends and co-workers."

"A castle?! Really?!" Alice pressed lightly into Xion's hand. "Does that make you a princess by chance?"

"No way I'm a princess, I'm just a servant." 'Though I hate to say I am one.'

"Even so, you get to live in a castle, that must be lovely!"

"Not really..." Xion's train of thought drifted off and she pulled Alice backward. She held her keyblade in front of her head and a plump, bean shaped heartless bounced off the keyblade.

"A Crescendo!" Xion flung her keyblade at it, but it quickly jumped up and blared the horn that made up its mouth. By its call, a gang of around 10 heartless crawled out from dark pits and surrounded only Xion. ' _That's weird, none of them are going for Alice like I thought. They must not see her as a threat.'_

Xion threw her keyblade in the air. "Fira burst!" She yelled, her keyblade spun around in the air, raining down balls of fire. The fireballs destroyed the heartless relatively fast and soon Xion was surrounded by tiny hearts. 'I love that spell so much! I have to thank Vivi again for teaching me.'

"That was marvellous!" Alice exclaimed. "How did you do it?!"

"With a little bit of magic." ' _More like a lot, that Fira burst depleted almost half of my MP.'_ Xion caught her keyblade as it was falling back down. "Cool, huh?"

"Cool?" Alice repeated. "Fire is supposed to be hot, is it not?"

"Heh heh, no silly. Cool means something is really impressive."

"How interesting...oh, look!" Alice pointed at a white blur moving along the horizon and then disappearing into Tugley Woods. "I believe that's who we're looking for!"

"Yeah, great, he's going to into Tugley Woods," Xion said weakly.

"Hurry, there's no time to waste!" Alice grabbed Xion's hand and dragged her into the place she tried her best to avoid. Specifically because they had only just entered the woods and already they were lost.

"Where do we go from here?"

Xion moved several giant, fan-shaped leaves out of the way. "No idea. Just stay close to me, heartless can appear any second and—omph!" She was jolted forwards as 'Alice' held onto her back. 'Since when did she become so heavy?' Turning around, however, she found that it wasn't Alice, but a rather pudgy, stocky man in a school boy's outfit.

"What the...WHO ARE YOU?!" Xion yelled.

He took off his cap, revealing a bald head, and took a bow. "Tweedle Dee!"

Another man popped up from behind Tweedle Dee. "And Tweedle Dum!"

"What happened to Alice?!"

"..."

"Where is she?!"

"..."

"That's it! I'm out of here!"

"'Out of here'? You're saying it all backwards!" Tweedle Dee said.

Tweedle Dum chimed in, "You're supposed to say 'hello, how do you do'."

"Or 'it's a lovely day isn't it?'"

"That's right, it's manners!"

She sighed. "H...Hello...How do you..do?"

Tweedle Dum, or Tweedle Dum, (she couldn't tell) shook her hand vigorously. "Splendid! It's a lovely day, isn't it?"

"Quite, the day was just like this for those poor oysters too."

"Would you like to hear about—" He saw Xion walking away from them. "Hey! Where do you think you're going?"

"To find Alice."

"How will you find Alice if you don't know where she is?"

Xion stopped walking. "So then...do you know where she is?"

"Certainly!" Replied both brothers, they pointed in opposite directions of the forest causing Xion to let out another exasperated sigh.

"Where are you pointing at, Tweedle Dum? That's clearly the wrong way!"

"Clearly not! I saw Alice go there!"

"No! I saw Alice go there!"

After a while of back and forth, the brothers grabbed Xion's hands. "I'll show you the right way," Tweedle Dee said.

"No, I will!" They pulled her in opposite directions and as a result, got nowhere at all. When Xion finally pulled her hands away from their rubbery palms, one of the brothers slipped and rolled down a steep hill hidden away by the bushes.

"Oh dear..." Tweedle Dee peeked at the name on his collar. "Tweedle Dum!" He called out.

"That's not good! We have to get him," Xion said.

"Why should we? Maybe now I can show you the right way!"

'What brothers they are.'

Suddenly, a swarm of air soldier heartless rose from the underbrush, they carried Tweedle Dum as well as Alice. Xion threw her keyblade at them, freeing them from their clutches, Xion caught Alice in her arms while Tweedle Dum fell headfirst into the ground.

"Thank you...Xion."

"No problem!" Xion set Alice down and readied her keyblade. _'Fira burst probably won't be such a smart idea here in a forest...let's see...'_

"What are those things?" Tweedle Dee asked.

"They're heartless, stay ba—" She was abruptly knocked backwards by one of the air soldiers, thinking fast, she rolled onto her back and shot several ice blasts at them. Although, she missed the majority of her targets.

"They don't seem very polite. Not a single 'hello' or 'how do you do'."

"Of course not!" She threw her keyblade, but the air solider merely caught her keyblade by the handle and threw it back at her. "Are you kidding me?!" She dodged her own keyblade and it lodged itself into the ground, next to Tweedle Dum.

"Maybe they'll change their minds when I tell them the story of the 'Walrus and the Carpenter'." He suggested.

Xion began pulling her keyblade from the ground. "That...That doesn't make any sense!"

"Ahem! 'The Walrus and The Carpenter' or 'The Story of the Sad Oysters' ..."

The sun was shining on the sea,

Shining with all his might:

He did his very best to make

The billows smooth and bright-

And this was odd, because it was

The middle of the night.

The moon was shining sulkily,

Because she thought the sun

Had got no business to be there

After the day was—

Tweedle Dee paused mid-sentence when he saw that all of the heartless had fallen asleep and were dropping down on the ground one by one. "Such foul beasts! Where are their manners?!" He fumed.

"Good thinking!" _'...31...32...32...and...'_ Xion drove her keyblade into the last heartless. _'34.'_

"Xion!" Alice clasped her hands onto Xion's. "I just saw the white rabbit again, let's go!"

"Okay!"

The two girls tread through the forest in search of the rabbit, dodging past enormous flowers and the wisps of smoke that curled from a dense growth of trees. They eventually ended back outside Tugley woods and near a small, rather plain looking house.

"Could that be his house?" Xion wondered out aloud. As if on cue, the white rabbit hopped up to the house and took out a ringlet of keys. "Yeah! That's him!"

They ran over to the white rabbit. "Hello mr. white rabbit," Xion began, eager they'd finally caught up to him after a seemingly endless chase.

"GWAH!" He shrieked and fell on his bottom. "You nearly scared the fur off me! Who are you two?! Certainly not my maid Mary Ann, that's for certain."

"Mary Ann?" Xion glanced at Alice who gave her a confused look.

"Yes-yes. Since none of you are Mary Ann, kindly take your leaving, I much too busy for you children."

"-W-Wait, mister white rabbit, we know where Mary Ann is!" Alice piped up.

"You do? Wonderful!" The white rabbit took a moment to rummage around in his coat pocket, from which he then pulled out a comical looking dress. "This is her maid outfit. Deliver this outfit to her if you can." He shoved the maid outfit into Xion's hands and went back to fumbling with his keys.

Now Xion had a confused look. "Alice...when did we ever meet a—"

"Shh!" Alice grabbed Xion's arm and dragged her back to the bushes. Now that they were out of earshot distance, Xion once again asked, "Alice, what're you up to?"

Alice cracked a mischeivious. "Don't worry, we've already found Mary Ann."

"...oh...no..." Xion said quietly.

OoO

"E-Excuse me Mr. White Rabbit...!"

"Yes, dear-Oh! Mary Ann, I was wondering when you would come!"

Xion shifted her weight. "Yeah I'm here, I mean... yes I'm present, the day's quite lovely isn't it?"

"It is lovely! Anyways, I need not run down my daily procedures," He handed her the keys. "Now if you'll excuse me...I'm terribly late for an important conference!"

"Wait a moment, sir!" Alice called out, running over to them. "...have you the slightest idea on how to leave this place?" She inquired.

"'This place'? All you have to do is walk away and you'll eventually leave my property."

"No, no, I mean this...world."

"..." His nose twitched and he adjusted his monocole, finally after a long silence, he said, "Mary Ann, I haven't a clue what your assistant is going on about. In any case, I'll be on my way, make sure my home is in tip top shape when I return!" He hopped away.

"That's no good, why don't we search around and see if we can find any clues instead." Alice suggested.

Xion unlocked the door, sighing. "I guess since we're here it wouldn't hurt if we looked around."

Without a moment's hesitation, Alice disappeared inside, leaving Xion to stroll in by herself. "Huh? It's a lot smaller than it looks." She gawked at all the knee high furniture, then got down on her knees to crawl through the door.

The next room was a miniature kitchen, complete with tiny cabinets full of food Xion imagined a rabbit would eat. 'I wonder where Alice ran off to in such a hurry? It's her first time here isn't?' She bent down to pick up a small box of cookies lying on the table. 'He has a sweet tooth, huh? Wish I could eat some, but who knows what it'll do to me.'

*BOOM

A giant leg smashed through the back wall and occupied a big portion of the kitchen. "What the heck?! I have to get out of here!" She threw her keyblade at the window and jumped through into a bed of carrots.

Meanwhile the house was ever expanding, stretching wider and wider until two giant arms and legs popped out of the house. The hands started grabbing at the house and tore off pieces of the house as if the infrastructure was wrapping paper, eventually, Xion could see Alice and her bright blue dress bursting out.

"...A-Alice?!"

Alice turned around, her steps creating tiny earthquakes on the ground, then bent down to Xion's level. She held her hand out and Xion stepped on. She slowly stood back up, holding Xion's close to her as she rose to the skies.

"This view is amazing, Alice!" Xion said in awe. They were so high up, she was sure she could touch a cloud if the skies weren't already clear.

"Xion..."

She turned around, a wave of doubt consuming her when she saw Alice's cold facial expression cast a looming shadow over her. "You don't have to worry about being this big forever, I found some cookies that'll return you to normal size!" 'Hopefully.'

Alice's fingers began curling, as if to make a fist, but she stopped suddenly and cracked a wry smile. "This was supposed to be the part where I..." She caught herself. "I'd like a cookie, thank you."

Xion took out the box of cookies from her coat pocket, presenting them to Alice. With her free hand, she picked up the box and tossed a few in her mouth. Xion hurriedly jumped off her hand while Alice shrunk down to normal size.

"Whew, that was close," Xion said.

Now back to her normal size, Alice approached Xion, rubbing her arm. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Why did...why did you...decide to help to me?"

"Because I wanted to and I think that's reason enough."

Alice giggled.

"Hey, what's so funny?"

"That's the thing about you nobodies...you're all so unpredictable."

Xion's eyes widened. "How do you know that?!"

"Because...I am a heartless."

"You're...You're a heartless?! H-How?!"

"I possessed this girl in hopes of killing you, Xion. That moment when I turned into a giant and held you in my hand was supposed to be when I killed you, but I never expected staying in this girl's body for so long would lead to me to develop feelings...emotions..."

Xion stared at the ground. "How do I know what you're saying is for real? A heartless like you will take any chance they can get to..." She went quiet for a moment. "...to get a heart."

Her hand grazed over her chest. "I have the one thing I've sought for my entire existence and I know that what I feel towards you is real. You gave me so many memories and made me remember what it was like when I had a heart. That's why I want you to...end me."

"..."

"If stay in this girl's body any longer, she'll lose her heart forever. Please...release her heart."

Xion summoned her keyblade and hugged Alice. "I won't forget you."

"You know...I think you're pretty cool." Were the heartless' final words before Xion stuck her keyblade through her chest, after a long silence, the real Alice rested her head on Xion's shoulder.

"Wh-Where am I?" Alice mumbled.

"You're back."


	14. Something There

**Day 121**

Xion walked into the Gray Room, most of the members were present save for Xaldin and Xigbar which meant she arrived early for once. Saïx, pleased at her unusually early arrival, approached her.

Roxas, seeing Xion as well, ran to her side. "Hey! Mornin' sleepy head!"

Xion yawned. "Morning. You look happy."

"Yeah, we're partners this mission!"

"Really? That's great!"

"Don't get used to it." Saïx interjected, he gave them both the mission details. "A major heartless has surfaced in Beast's Castle and since you're both familiar with fighting major heartless in Beast's Castle, you'd both be most suitable for the task."

"Another major heartless to fight?" Xion asked.

"Preparation for when you'll eventually have to fight major heartless alone." Saïx supplied.

"What?!" Roxas exclaimed.

"—Don't sweat it," Axel said, slapping Roxas on the back. "It's like pushing you guys in the deep end–sink or swim, right?"

"Yeah, sink! I'm having a hard time not getting my head bit off with a partner, I can't imagine what it'll be like without one..." He shook his head to get the macabre thought out of his mind. "How long until that day comes?"

"Within the following month. That'll give you enough time to prepare, if not, well I can guarantee at least one of you will stay alive. You do both know how to utilize your limit breaks though, I assume?"

"Kind of..." Roxas muttered.

"Limit break? What's that?" Xion asked.

"It's a power you obtain when you're near death...I'll have to teach you next week since you don't already know. With your limit break, your chances of living are considerably higher."

' _I wish he told me about this sooner.'_

"If that's all..." As Saïx took his leaving, Axel turned to Xion and Roxas with his usual crafty smirked equipped on his face. "Hey, don't you guys worry about fighting major heartless alone, you two are gonna pass with flying colors." He reassured.

Xion let out a long sigh, then looked up at Axel, uncertain, but confident. "You're right Axel!" Facing Roxas next, she boasted, "We're gonna pass with flying colors!"

"Geez, when did you become so optimistic?"

"Helps to in a depressing place like this." Xion created a dark portal and beckoned for Roxas to follow. After Axel waved them goodbye, the three friends parted ways.

OoO

Xion and Roxas landed on the balcony, still snowing as per usual, but today seemed brighter, livelier. The sun was shining and white, fluffy snow blanketed the world, covering all its impurities.

"So what're we after?" Roxas asked.

"Didn't you read the mission report?"

"You never gave it to me."

"Heh, sorry about that..." She fished out a slightly crumpled paper from her pocket and gave it to Roxas.

"...Ah, It's called the 'invisible' heartless and it's impervious to physical attacks and magic whenever it becomes invisible. Sounds like a tough one."

"Sure does, but it's weak against Aero and Thunder magic. We have to go all out whenever it becomes invisible." Xion walked inside the Castle. "Hm?" She could hear cheerful singing, bouncing around within the castle walls.

"Do you hear that?"

Roxas joined her inside and gave the mission report back to Xion. He was silent for a moment while he listened in. "...Yeah. Sounds like they're having fun," He finally said.

"Well, we probably shouldn't bring bad news and tell them a heartless is ready to kill them. Let's just stay in the shadows."

"Got it. Recon's what we do best, right?"

"Right..."

Leaving Beast's room they walked down into the hallway, below was the main entrance, alive and glittering against the sunlight that passed through the ceiling high windows. Xion and Roxas saw Beast and Belle beginning down the hall, Beast was carrying a huge stack of books that towered even over his large stature.

"—Oh Beast, you're going to love this book, it's got such wonderful characters and the twist at the ending is just so romantic!" Belle gushed. "And not to mention there's a murder mystery that ties it all together!"

"I like the sound of that murder mystery part..."

"Of course you would say something like." She teased.

"Hmph, maybe I—" Beast abruptly tripped over and the tower of books fell down on the ground.

They scrambled to the floor to pick up the books. When they got to the last book, Belle's soft, delicate hand touched with Beast's furry claws. Their eyes rested on each other for a split second before Beast yanked his paw away and rubbed the back of his neck. Belle giggled, picking the last book up herself.

"Looks like someone's rather clumsy," Belle said.

"No-I'm perfectly balanced, there must of been something sticking out from the floor..." He searched around for anything that could've tripped him, but found only a spotless floor. "Ok then my servants must of wiped this floor too clean." He stomped away.

"Beast! Wait!" Belle paused to pick up the books that flew off his stack. "You're dropping all these books again!"

They disappeared down another hallway, Xion and Roxas looked at each other, smiling. "They're really getting along together nicely, I'm so happy for them!"

"Yeah. Let's make sure we get that heartless, so they don't have to worry about it." Roxas jumped off the second level onto the ground level.

Xion went to his side, keyblade in hand. "Since we're fighting a major heartless, we should be on our guard the entire time."

"Got it!" Roxas summoned his keyblade.

The columns surrounding them suddenly sliced in half. Xion and Roxas stood back to back with their keyblades out in front of them. A subdued silence sat between the two nobodies before a violent, invisible clash pushed Xion backwards.

They both jumped out of the way as a jagged crevice etched itself through the marble floor. "It has some type of sword too, damn, that's so not good!" Roxas yelled.

"Let's attack with wide range attacks!"

"Ok!"

Roxas could feel the presence of the heartless dawning upon him so he stepped backwards and threw his keyblade in a circular motion. Xion followed suit with a devastating 'Thundaga' attack.

"-GWARRGH!" The heartless screeched.

"There! We got 'em!"

Their target, The Invisible, showed itself to the nobodies. Bulking in body mass and pure black in color, it had a small pair of wings on its back. It wielded a large, light blue sword with the words 'HARD CORE' near the hilt. The Invisible raised its claw and a cluster of dark energy balls formed in it. It threw the spheres of dark energy into the air and used its sword like a bat to hit them towards Xion and Roxas.

While Roxas nimbly dodged the dark spheres, Xion was only able to dodge a few of them until she was thrown off guard by a fast one that drove into her stomach and toppled her backwards.

"XION!" Roxas yelled.

Xion used her keyblade to get back up on her feet. "Watch out!" She spit out.

Roxas quickly slashed a dark sphere that was spiraling towards his head, then dodged sideways. 'Let's try this!' He pressed his hands on the floor. "Gravity!"

A wave of purple energy engulfed the floor and the dark spheres dropped down on the ground. With the spheres out of the way, he ran over to Xion. "You ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine, good thinking with using Gravity."

"Thanks," Roxas darted his head around in desperate search of the Invisible. "Huh? Where'd it go?"

"...No idea, wait, Roxas!"

There was a ring of fire circling around Roxas along with the number 5 over his head. "What the heck?" Roxas yelled, he tried jumping out of it, but the ring stayed around himself and the number counted down to 4.

Xion pointed his keyblade at him. "Esuna!" A curtain of light wrapped around Roxas, then disappeared, nothing except for the number to go down to 3.

"If it's not a status effect, could it be that heartless transformed itself into that ring of fire," Xion said.

"...then you have to attack me! Hit me with your best shot!"

"Roxas, I can't do that to you!"

"I'll be fine! Come on, there's not much time left, and I don't wanna know what happens when this number counts down."

Xion raised her keyblade at Roxas, shaking. She glimpsed at Roxas and saw how confident he was, she had to look away. ' _How can you not be scared. Are you doing this for me?'_ "Thun...Thund..." She stammered.

The number counted down to 2, desperate, he pushed her further. "Xion, don't worry about killing me! You won't, just do it! You have to!"

' _I'm sorry Roxas.'_ "Thunder!"

A bolt of lightning from above struck Roxas and he fell down. "Roxas!" Xion rushed over to his side.

"Did it work..." He mumbled.

The number counted down to 1, Xion's eyes grew wide with shock. "ROXAS!" She screamed. "It didn't work! What do we do?!"

"Dunno, I can't think of anything...you sure fried my brain."

Tears were welling up in her eyes and begging to fall down her cheeks. "DON'T SAY THAT!" She pounded on his chest.

"Sorry, that was the first thing that came to mind, hey...but you have to get away from me, ok? I don't want anything bad to happen to you too."

"No! I can't leave you alone like this!"

"Then I will." Roxas pushed her away, attempting to get as far away from her as possible. The number counted down to 0 and the ring of fire exploded. Though, instead of falling back down, a coat of light surrounded him and two keyblades manifested in his hands.

"R-Roxas!"

The Invisible appeared behind Xion, ready to chop her head off with a quick slash, luckily Roxas threw one of his keyblades at the heartless and it flung backwards into the columns.

The heartless, as a last ditch effort, turned invisible again, so Roxas put his two keyblades together. Several pillars of light emerged from nothingness and drenched the room in a blinding, white light, disintegrating the once terrifying heartless into a mere heart.

Ultimately, Roxas collapsed, teetering on the verge of death.

Xion picked Roxas' limp body up, holding him close to her. "...Cura..." She squeezed him. "...You said you wouldn't die..."

"—Oh dear!" Cried Belle, her voice took Xion by surprise and she froze in place

Beast stomped behind Belle. "What in the world happened?!" He growled.

"The heartless came and—"

"No, not to the castle, to your friend," Beast elaborated. "We must take him to the guest room and nurse him back to health!"

"Would you allow us to?" Belle asked.

"...Yes, please help him! Please, please help him."

Beast's extended his arms out and Xion placed Roxas into Beast's arms. She followed them to the guest room, Beast set Roxas down on the bed, then left shortly to bark at his servants for medical supplies while Belle stayed behind.

Xion took a seat on the edge of the bed. "You...You aren't mad we broke into your castle and destroyed the main entrance." She murmured to Belle.

"How could we? If you were here to fight the heartless, then we hold no ill will towards you. Not only that, you two must be the reason why we've been seeing less and less heartless, thank you."

"It's no problem. We're happy to help."

"-This boy risked his life to get rid of the heartless for us." Belle brushed Roxas' hair away from his charred and bruised face. "He looks so much like that boy, Sora. Almost a spitting image."

"He gets that a lot." She sighed. "Do you think he'll be ok?"

"I hope so, we'll try our best to help him as best we can."

Beast burst back into the room with an armful of medical supplies along with the animate objects beside him. "Is this enough?"

"Yes. Let's get right to work."

For a while, Xion quietly watched Belle tend to Roxas, until she looked away at her feet and let out a deep sigh. _'None of this would've happened if I were strong enough to protect him.'_ She clenched her fist. _'Why can't I do anything for him?!'_

"Petite fille, this must be hard on you as well," Lumiere said, picking up on her anxiety. "Is there anything we can do for you?"

"No, there's not."

"Dearie, if there's anything we can do for you, please do not hesitate," Ms. Potts said.

She shook her head. "...I just want him to be ok."

"He'll be back on his feet in no time!" Chip exclaimed.

"I..I really do hope so."

XxXX

**Day 122**

Xion woke up to the rays of sunlight enveloping her face, she looked around, dazed, only to realize where she was and why she was here. Standing up from the chair she'd fallen asleep on, she gazed at Roxas, still asleep and wrapped in bandages. _'Don't worry, I'll stay here for you as long as it takes.'_

*knock-knock

"May I come in?"

"Yes."

The door creaked open and Belle walked in holding a tray with two bowls of bisque and croissants. "I thought you and your friend might be hungry." She sent it down on the nightstand. "Is he doing any better?"

"I don't know, he hasn't woken up yet."

"I see, well in the meantime, you're free to try some soup and bread. It's quite delicious, those objects made it themselves."

Xion picked up a spoonful of the thick and creamy bisque, she blew on it to cool it off, then put it in her mouth. After that, she took a small bite from the croissant. "Mm! This is really good!"

Belle smiled as Xion wolfed down the whole meal. "May I ask what your name is? Mine is Belle."

"I'm Xion...that boy sleeping is Roxas."

"Roxas and Xion. It's very nice to meet you."

After emptying the bowl of bisque and eating more than her fair share of crossianents, she timidly faced Belle. "...can you help me with something?" She asked.

"Of course. What is it?"

"I want..." She squeezed her hands again. "...I want to be strong enough to protect those who matter."

"Xion, having all the strength in the world won't matter if you don't have courage. If you truly desire to protect someone close to you, you have to be able to overcome your fears."

"That's what you do?"

"That's what I try to do, but even I can only do so much."

"..." Xion glanced back at Roxas. 'So what should I do for you, Roxas?'

XxXX

**Day 124**

Xion dragged her feet down the long hallway, when she was nearing the end of the hall, a clank-clank-clank sound echoed behind her. She turned around to find Lumiere and Cogsworth trotting behind. "Oh, hello Lumiere, Cogsworth," She sounded as defeated as she felt, however seeing them somewhat brightened the gloomy day.

"And a hello back to you as well, but what is madame Xion doing out of the guest room?" Lumiere asked.

"I'm just walking around trying to make sense of what's going on. You know, sorry if this seems out of nowhere, but watching you guys act so human despite being mere objects got me wondering, were you humans before?"

"Correct. A curse was placed on this castle long ago due to the master having a cold heart. We're cursed to stay like this until the master can learn to love someone and have someone love him in return." Lumiere explained. "Is a sad story, I know, but there's a silver lining to it."

"If there is, we have yet to discover whatever this 'silver lining' happens to be." Cogsworth grumbled.

"We don't have to worry about eating or sleeping, eh."

"But that was the best part about being human."

"For you, I know."

"Well I'll be!"

Xion giggled, something she hadn't recalled doing in a while. "Could you two show me around the castle, I've always wanted to look around in this place."

Lumiere clanked his two candles together. "Why of course! We'll start down the east wing..."

XxXX

**Day 128**

*KNOCK

*knock

Xion was sitting on a chair in the guest's room, watching over Roxas. "Come in."

Beast opened the door and walked in holding several books in his arms. "I figured you might be bored so I brought you some books." He set them down in the corner then picked one up to bring to Xion. "This is my favorite one."

"Romeo and Juliet?" Xion read aloud, she flipped it over to the back and skimmed through the summary. "Hehe...it sounds kind of cheesy. I mean, what is love anyways?"

"Hm. That's hard to explain. I suppose it's a feeling you get whenever you like someone more than usual."

"Huh?"

"Sorry, I'm not good with words. All I know is that love is one of those things that you'll know when it happens."

"Do you love someone?"

"...I do. I'm just not sure if she loves me back."

XxXX

**Day 129**

"...uh..."

Xion dropped the book she was reading and went over to Roxas' side as he was beginning to beginning to lift himself up. "Wh...Where am I?" He mumbled. "And...what happened, everything feels so hazy."

She wrapped her arms around Roxas and hugged him as tight as she could. "I'm so happy you're ok! I was worried sick about you!"

"Thanks for being there for me. Heh heh, but I probably did something really stupid to end up like this."

Xion nodded then buried her head into his chest. "I won't let you ever do that to yourself again. I'll always be there for you."

"...I will too. That's why I do stupid things."

"Roxas..."

*knock

*knock

"May I come in?"

Xion and Roxas let go of each other's embrace and awkwardly looked the other way. "Uh...yeah..." Xion said.

"I found some of the most wonderful—oh my!" Belle set down the books she was holding, then rushed over to Roxas' side. "Thank goodness you're awake!"

"Y-Yeah. Thanks for taking care of me."

"It was no problem at all. Are you able to stand?"

"I think so." Roxas eased off the bed, he stood on his feet for what's felt like forever. 'I can do this!' He took one step forward, then another, and soon he was bouncing around. "I'm feeling great right now!"

"Well, maybe you should take it easy before you—"

Chip as well as his mother came into the guest room unannounced. "—Belle! Belle! There's a strange man outside looking for Roxas and Xion!"

"What does this strange man look like?" Xion asked.

"He had such peculiar fiery red hair and wears the same attire you two do." Mrs. Potts recalled.

"Axel!" Xion and Roxas said in unison.

They burst out of the room and ran down to the main entrance where Beast and the rest of the objects were gathered. Sure enough, Axel was outside, arms crossed, with his typical playful look on his face. When he saw them running over to him, he waved and cracked a big smile. "Hey, Xion, Roxas, been a while huh?"

"So you do know these children." Beast muttered.

"Yeah, like I said, furball. Now can you let me in, it's cold out here."

"...Fine."

"This is where you guys have been hiding out," Axel said, walking in. "You know, it's a mess back at home without you two."

"Huh?! How long were we gone?" Xion asked.

"Over a week."

"WHAT?!" Roxas exclaimed. "Saïx must be so mad at us right now!"

Axel chuckled. "Not at all, that guy won't even pretend to have emotions, but I guess you could say he got a little frustrated. None of the other members could find you guys so Saïx assumed you were dead and gave up searching. That all happened before I came back from CO. The day I did, the boss came and told us we better at least find Your guy's bodies or we were gonna get it, naturally Saïx sent me and the rest is history."

' _They must of not been looking that hard if Axel just came through the front door like that.'_ "Guess we should go back then," Roxas said.

"It be nice if you would."

"...hey Axel, you didn't think we were dead, did you?" Xion asked.

"Nah. You guys are too strong for that, but you know, everyone's gonna be wonderin' why you've been here so long."

"Roxas nearly died from the heartless we had to fight so he stayed here to recover. You know I couldn't just leave him alone..."

"Damn, all that happened?"

"Mm hm. I know now that heartless casted a type of time bomb spell on Roxas and you can only get rid of it by cancelling it out with another time bomb spell."

"We should learn that spell as soon as we can," Roxas said.

"It'll be the first thing we do."

"Right...so are you two ready to go?"

Nodding their heads, they turned back and waved goodbye to everyone.

"Thanks for everything," Roxas said.

"I can't thank you enough for taking care of him," Xion said.

"We were happy to help," Belle said.

"Feel free to come back any time you like." Beast added.

"Oh-an thanks for making sure they didn't die," Axel said.

OoO

The three nobodies walked into the Gray room and saw Saïx pacing around near his desk. When he saw them, he calmly walked over to them, the way he always did, and looked at them, the way he always did, utterly emotionless. It was as if they never left.

"Where were you two?" Saïx asked.

"Beast's Castle." Roxas answered.

"Don't expect to go back there anytime soon. At least not the two of you together, but did you at least slay the major heartless like I ordered?"

"Yes, but we nearly died trying to kill that thing. Luckily, Roxas was able to use his limit break, or we probably wouldn't be here at all." Xion explained.

"Xion figured out a way to nullify its strongest attack though, so we'll be fine if we ever encounter it." Roxas added.

"Good. In any case, your absence has accumulated into quite a large sum of hearts for you tw to collect. 425 to be exact."

"WHAT?!" Xion and Roxas both yelled.

"To make up for it, you'll be collecting 50 hearts per mission instead of the usual 30. And I want you both on separate missions from now on until then."

"Yes sir..." The both muttered.

As Saïx took his leaving Axel patted Roxas and Xion on the back. "How 'bout some ice cream to celebrate!"

"Glad to finally hear some good news," Roxas said.

OoO

Roxas, Axel and Xion sat at their usual spot eating their favorite treat; sea salt ice cream. The day was like any other day in Twilight Town, quiet, peaceful, and the sun shined with a dim glow that was mesmerizing, as usual.

"It's been awhile since we've all been able to sit like this and eat ice cream together," Roxas said.

"Life's just been so busy, it's hard to catch a break," Xion said.

"Yeah well we're all here now. Let's enjoy the rest of the day..." Axel said.


	15. Light and Shadows

**Day 130**

"...In light of recent events. I've decided today is as best time's as any to teach you about Limit breaks." Saïx began. "Come, follow me to the training room."

'I wonder what a limit break is? Could it be the power Roxas used that day in the Beast's castle?' Lost in her own thoughts, Xion trailed far behind Saïx while they made their way out of the Gray room and down to the lower levels of the castle where a giant, circular room lie. It was empty and spacious, making it the perfect space for training.

Saïx walked up the center and waited, beckoning for Xion to follow. When she was at the center, Saïx turned to face her. "Limit breaks are the cultivation of every drop of power in your body, and it can only be unleashed when you're at your lowest most vulnerable point. That's truly when you're most powerful..."

He continued. "Limit breaks manifest differently for everyone, but they're always based on your domain. My domain is the moon, I draw strength from it, your domain, like Roxas' is light."

"Ok...so, once I'm at my lowest point, how do I summon that power?"

"The power comes to you and you'll answer its calling."

' _Well that sure wasn't helpful.'_ "When do we begin?"

Saïx pulled his fist out. "Right now. Are you ready?"

"Mm hm!"

He reeled his arm back then punched Xion right smack in the face, sending her flying across the room and landing hard on the floor. Xion stood back up on her feet, her eyes still blurry from the impact fixated on the white floor stained with her own blood. _'He...He really hit me...'_ Her eyes then drew upward to Saïx who wore nothing short of a dead expression, she could feel her fingers curling into a fist and rage coarsed through her veins. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" She yelled.

"I gave you a fair warning. I never said this would be easy...now, do you feel the power?"

Xion took a moment to wipe off the blood dribbling down her chin before muttering a restrained, 'No.'

Without warning, Saïx approached Xion, then kicked her in the stomach and she fell onto her back. Without a moment's hesitation, Xion rolled on her stomach, lifting herself to her knees. "Ugh..." She mumbled. "...why isn't my limit break working?"

"Who can fault a puppet for not working properly? I'm surprised you haven't broken already for everything you've endured," Saïx said with an uncharacteristic amount of venom laced in his voice.

"What did you call me..."

"A puppet. A thing." He repeated.

When she raised her head, he hit her again and she was back down.

"That's what makes you so disposable to us."

Xion could hear the low tapping sound Saïx's boots made when they hit the floor grow louder and louder as he neared her. The sound stopped and neither of them spoke a word. ' _How could you say that to me?! A puppet? A THING?! I'm not disposable, I'm not going to lose anything ever again!'_ An untameable, blinding fury overcame her and without looking up, she snatched Saïx by the arm before he could hit her another time.

"I guess that got through to you," He said, picking up on her anger.

Xion kneed Saïx in the stomach and he stumbled backwards. Her keyblade came to hand, transforming into a long sword made of light right before their eyes. She pointed it at Saïx. "I won't lose to you anymore."

_'I might of pushed her too far. Pity.' Saïx summoned his claymore and blocked the flurry of lightning fast attacks that came from Xion. 'However, what an excellent display of power.'_

Xion switched initiatives and raised her keyblade in the air. Pillars of light formed all around the room, ultimately destroying it. At the end of the light show, Saïx was passed out on the floor while Xion was reduced down to her knees, exhausted.

 _'I can barely stand.'_ She felt around in her pockets, then pulled out a hi-potion, drinking it up and feeling instantly rejuvenated. "I still feel a little dizzy, but...was that the power of my Limit break?"

The sound of more footsteps caught her attention, she looked behind to find Xigbar slipping inside. "Xigbar?" She asked.

"—Hey! The hell's going on in...Whoa!" He ran over to Saïx, afer a short inspection, he said "Wow, you really took a toll on him, Xion."

Xion shook her head. "He's not dead or anything, is he?"

"As if, takes a lot to kill him, but I don't think he'll be gettin' up for a while."

"...No...you're wrong." Saïx muttered. He clutched the handle of his claymore, using it to heave himself up on his feet. "I may of underestimated the power of your Limit break Xion...but you must learn to control it." He staggered out of the room only to collapse back down on the floor.

Xigbar rolled his eye. "What a sore loser."

_'This power I have, it's terrifying...but I have to learn how to control it somehow.'_

XxXX

**Day 131**

Xion found all of the members present in the Gray room all except for Saïx, a rare occurrence. ' _Guess Saïx is still recovering from yesterday's training session.'_ She approached Axel and Roxas, who were at the back table playing cards with Luxord.

"Good morning guys, what's going on?" Xion asked.

"Saïx hasn't reported in yet, so we're just camping out there 'til he does." Axel answered, shuffling through his hand. "Word has it he really took a beating from you!"

Xion rubbed the back of her head. "I mean, I wouldn't call it a beating, but it might take some time for him to report back in."

"He deserved it, serves him right for everything he's put us through—oh," Roxas slammed a card down onto the pile. "Pick two, Axel!"

"Aw man...I was down to the three cards too."

"Don't waste your time!" Luxord pressed his last card on top of Roxas' and both Axel and Roxas groaned. "Ready to lose again round 3?"

Axel smirked. "You're on!"

"-Hey, Xion, you wanna play? It's super easy to pick up." Roxas offered.

"Oh no thanks, I have some things I have to do first. Maybe I will later though."

"Alright. Well, you're free to join whenever."

Xion walked away from them and walked towards the Moogle shop. She bent down to meet with the Moogle's level, quickly realizing a new face had taken over the shop. "...hey, you're not the usual Moogle, what happened to Monty?"

"He had some business to take care of. In the meantime, my name is Mosh, I'm Monty's apprentice, kupo."

"Nice to meet you Mosh, I'm Xion!" She rummaged through her pockets for her munny pouch. "I just want 5 Hi-potions and 3 ethers, oh and do you got any new spells today?"

"Yep. A shipment of Aero, Light, and several tier 2 spells came into today actually."

"A light spell? I'll take it."

"It's called Spark, and that along with your other items will be 95 munny, kupo."

"H-HUH?! All of that for only 95 munny?!"

"I'm not like my master, he's super greedy and thinks you and the blondie are super gullible. I'm running this store on my own terms."

 _'Thank goodness I can finally catch a break.'_ Xion exchanged the munny with Mosh for a small transcript on how to perform Spark. She skimmed through the transcript, then stuffed it inside her coat pocket for reference. _'I see, so two rings of light spirals around the keyblade. I hope by learning a light spell I'll be able to control my Limit break and use my summons soon enough.'_

The room suddenly got dead silent with the only noise being the subtle tap-tap-tap sound their boots made when they hit the floor. It took only a moment for Xion to realize Xemnas himself was approaching the nobodies along with several papers clenched in his hand.

 _'What's Xemnas doing here? Am I in trouble for hurting Saïx, oh no! What if he turns me into a dusk!'_ Xion tried hiding herself behind the Moogle shop to avoid Xemnas' piercing gaze.

Xemnas stopped shortly in the middle of the room. "As you all may or may not of known, Saïx is out of commission for the time being, however that doesn't mean you're short of work. It has come to my attention that several dark figments of fallen members have appeared as 'absent silhouettes' in the various worlds. Each of you will try and find these absent silhouettes in the world I assign to you."

After his announcement, the Organization members went over to Xemnas to receive their specified world. ' _Thank goodness it wasn't about me._ ' She breathed a sigh of relief as she took the report from Xemnas, then read through it. _'I'm going to Olympus Coliseum?'_

"Xion. One other thing."

She shuddered at Xemnas' call of her name, then slowly met with him. "Y-Yes...sir...?"

"I want you to do a report on the so called 'mysterious soldier' another member found in Olympus Coliseum along with trying to find the absent silhouette since you're going to that world. This solider may pose a threat if we're not careful, that is all."

"..." _'That scared me for a second. In any case, it shouldn't be too hard to find a mysterious solider along with whatever an absent silhouette is. If I can't find one, I can certainly find the other.'_

"Xion, where are you going?" Roxas asked, walking up to her.

"...Olympus Coliseum. You?"

"Agrabah. It sure is gonna be a pain trying to find whatever an absent silhouette is in that world."

"And I haven't been to Olympus Coliseum in so long. I wonder how everyone's been doing..."

"Yo, Xion, Roxas!" Axel joined them, his mission report in hand. "Where are you guys off to?"

"Olympus Coliseum."

"Agrabah for me. Where are you going?"

"Take a wild guess."

"Wonderland?"

"Nope!"

"...Twilight Town?"

"Not that place either."

"Oh, then it has to be Beast's Castle," Xion said.

Axel shook his head. "Wow..you guys are bad guessers. I'm actually going to Hollow Bastion."

"You don't look too thrilled about going there either," Xion said.

"How could I? That place that gives me headaches and bad memories."

"Well...even if we're all going to totally different places, we'll all meet each other at the clock tower after our missions, right?" Roxas asked.

Xion nodded. "Sure! I promise I'll be there!"

"Me too. Last person will have to buy, so you two better hurry," Axel said.

"Oh and who says you'll be the first person finished," Xion said.

"Yeah, you'll probably be last, as usual," Roxas said.

"We'll just see about that! Later you guys!"

"Goodbye!" Xion faced Roxas next. "See ya soon Roxas, and good luck. You'll need it."

"Gee thanks for the boost of confidence."

After sharing a few moments of laughter, they parted ways in the darkness.

OoO

Xion emerged from the dark portal into an alley. 'It's super quiet...' Wasking out of the alley, she found day that the main square outside of the Coliseum was empty. 'Where is everyone?' She wondered.

She decided to stroll around out in the open, searching for anything that seemed out of place in the ancient world, though her mind was elsewhere. _'Xemnas didn't really explain what an absent silhouette was. I know a silhouette is like a shadow, so the absence of a shadow? What could that look like? And a mysterious solider? Obviously they'll be in the Coliseum...'_ So lost in her own thoughts, she didn't realize she bumped into someone...furry, and she received an immediate, "Who the hell are you, girl?"

Xion looked down to see Phil glaring at her, his unibrow furrowed and he silently demanded an answer, that's when it dawned upon her, _'I must not look like Sora to him anymore. That's a relief.'_ "Um...I'm...I'm Sora's friend, it's nice to meet you...Phil!"

"Oh! You're a friend of Sora's?" Phil's knotted facial expression loosened up. "Glad to know my name has spread far and wide in Greece!" He offered his human hand to Xion. "Put er there!"

Xion reluctantly shook his hand. "M-My name is Xion!" She stammered. "...uh, have you seen something...unordinary...lately?"

"Something? More like someone. This pink haired chick just showed up one day and demanded to be entered into the games. I mean, it's not like I could say no to a girl with those types of attributes, if you know what I mean, so of course I let her in."

Xion rolled her eyes. ' _What a creep.'_ "So what's the problem then?"

"She's too powerful! The girl's been dominating every single competitor and I'm worried she'll beat Herc too and ruin my rep! Someone's gotta take her down a notch." He paced around, his hooves clicking on the ground.

"Maybe I could be of some assistance?" She offered. 'Sounds like the mysterious solider I'm looking and maybe I can find more about where the absent silhouette is too.'

He stopped pacing, then tugged at his goatee. "It's a big gamble letting in someone I just met into the games. You don't even look like a fighter, no offense."

Xion summoned her keyblade, twirling it around for effect. "No, but I can use the keyblade pretty well."

"The keyblade?! Why didn't you just say so! That oversized key performs miracles, I tell ya, here, I'll sign you up right now!"

She followed Phil into the vestibule where he shifted through several stone tablets of registration forms.

"...um...who is the person I'm fighting against? I want to know more about her."

"Her name's Lightning, weird name I know, and she's got attitude. Wouldn't tell me where she was from anything, all she said was 'fighting's the only thing I know'. She's probably from Rome or something, they've got a bunch of weirdos." He etched something into a fresh stone tablet. "Which reminds me, where are you from, Xion?"

 _'Think quick, you can't let him know your true identity.'_ "I...I'm from Rome too!"

"Yeah I thought so...aaaand how old are you?"

"I don't know, I never thought about that."

"Eh, you look about 14-15, let's go with 15." Finished with her registration, he stacked the stone tablet on top of a few others. "You're in, kid. Come on, let's go watch the match and see what you're up against."

Phil pushed open the doors to the arena and they were met with a rush of cheers and applause coming from the audience. Now that the Coliseum was filled up with nearly all of Athens, it felt so much bigger than what she could've ever imagined. _'I'll be fighting with all these people watching? It kind of makes me nervous.'_

"Xion, down here, you get front row seats since you'll be competing."

Xion went down a set of stairs and into a rectangular room lit by torches on the wall. The torches lead them to another room, containing two long benches filled with tired, beat up, and bloody competitors who just got their matches over with.

Phil studied the competitors, then stomped his hoof on the ground. "Are you kidding me?! Herc isn't even here yet?!" He fumed. "Soon as that kid comes down, I'm gonna give him the one-two!"

"That's right, he'll be fighting right after me. So where can we watch the match anyways?"

"Down there!" He pointed to a corridor past the benches, natural light curved from around the corner and lit up the damp resting area.

Xion traced the light to a caged entrance where she could see the latest fight taking place. "..Oh my gosh, she's going so fast, I can barely keep up!"

"Yep. Guess that's why she goes by Lightning. Usually fast people have the weakest defense, hit them with heavy attacks as soon as you get an opening and you're sure to have it in the bag," Phil said.

"Really? So how can I find an opening?"

"Who knows."

Xion's head sunk. _'I hate to count on my Limit break since it's such a risky move, and if it doesn't defeat her then...'_ She squeezed the cage bars. _'No. I won't use my Limit break unless I'm sure I'll win! I'll just have to come up with a strategy on my own.'_

"Hey, what's with the long face? You'll pull through...hopefully. Let's just keep our fingers crossed."

"You're right." Then, just like that, the match was over and the cage rose. A bulky man staggered inside the resting area, barely conscious, while Lightning stood tall on the arena floor, undeterred.

"What? It's over already?!" A pang of sickening anxiety overcame Xion. "I don't know about this anymore, I—"

Phil slapped Xion on the back. "Don't worry about it! Go get 'em tiger!"

She looked back at Phil then towards Lightning. 'I have to do this! Here goes nothing!' Xion ran onto the arena floor, basking in the hundreds, upon thousands of voices yelling and screaming.

Xion faced Lighting, a medium height, young woman with wavy, pink hair. She wore a white coat, a short brown skirt and tall boots, coupled with a crimson red cape that flapped out from behind her back. Grasped tightly in her hand was a silver, mechanical looking sword that was caked with blood.

' _So this is Lightning...she's fast so I'll start off with Slow then use earthquake to get her off her feet. After that I'll use Strike raid and hopefully that'll be the end of it.'_

A loud, blaring horn halted her train of thought, sounding off the match to start. However, the instant Xion summoned her keyblade, Lightning was already gone.

 _'She's coming behind me!'_ Xion twirled around and blocked an incoming attack from Lightning' signature gunblade—Blazefire saber. When they locked eyes with each other, Xion saw Lightning's stoic eyes soften from Xion's gaze.

"Who are you?!" Lightning demanded, pushing harder on Xion's keyblade.

"X-Xion!"

"Then why do you remind me so much of her?!"

"S-Slow!"

Lightning's movements slowed down to a crawl so Xion took this as an opportunity to leap back to the opposite edge of the arena where she prepared her next spell. 'After this I'll only have enough MP for a few more spells. I hope this works!' "...Earthquake!" She enunciated.

The second after she cast the spell, the ground beneath them shook so violently it not only caused Lightning to fall down, but even the audience could feel its effects. Only Xion remained unaffected since after all, she was the caster. _'This worked better than I thought! Now I have the perfect opportunity to make my next move!'_ Xion ran towards Lightning as fast as she could, then threw her keyblade. "Strike raid!"

With the Earthquake was wearing down, Lightining was able to regain footing and she swiftly dodged the flying keyblade, as well as dodge it again when it subsequently came back like a boomerang. Lightning smirked, on the cusps of enjoying herself. _'Not bad, she's kept me on my toes, that's for sure. But now it's time to stop playing games with her.'_ She pointed her gunblade at Xion and it transformed from a sword into a gun.

 _'It's a gun too?!'_ Xion called her keyblade back. "Protect!" A shield of light formed in front of Xion that shielded her from the incoming bullets. By the time the last bullet bounced off the shield, Lightning had vanished from her sight once again. 'Where is she be now?!'

"...!" Xion received a heavy blow to her back that brought her down to her knees. _'...she hit so hard...but...I still have to...'_ A sharp pain shot up through her back and she clenched her teeth together, despite her body begging to stay down she pushed herself up out of sheer determination. _'...I still have to get up...I have to live.'_ After what felt like an eternity to get back up went by in mere seconds, and she was soon back on her feet facing Lightning.

Lightning glared at Xion, a sudden rush over anger overcame her. "Why do you refuse to give up?! Don't you see, you're way out of your league!" She yelled.

"I don't care!" Xion yelled back. "If I give up now, I'll give up my life and I can't do that! I have someone I need to meet... I promised to be there for them..."

"What the hell kind of reason is that?!"

"Listen, the point is...I have people I can count on. I'll make it through!"

A long silence sat between them until Lightning let out a sigh and stuck her gunblade into the ground, garnering boo's from the audience. Though it didn't phase her in the slightest, the only person she focused on was Xion. "...You even sound like her too," She said finally, there was a lack of hostility in her voice that made Xion let her guard down, a little.

"Who do I remind you of?"

"My little sister, Serah... I remember now why I'm here, because of you. Thanks." Lightning picked her gunblade up, then placed it back into the holster.

"I get it. So that means you lost your memory, I did too, that's why I made new memories to fill the hole that was left inside of me. But I guess there's some old memories you never want to forget."

"I won't ever forget her. Even as I breathe my last breath, there are ways to keep a thought alive. That's why I remembered why I ever came here, I was exiled. She was exiled too, and I...I mean we've been trying to find her ever since."

"Well, this probably doesn't mean much coming from me, but I hope you find her someday."

"Me too. By the way, name's Lightning."

"I'm Xion."

"Heh. I'll remember a name like that." She walked away, ignoring the loud boo's and occasional pieces of trash or rock thrown at her as she exited the arena. Xion did the same, entering the Coliseum's rest area once more.

"Hey, Xion! You did great out there!" Phil exclaimed. "'Least the first 10 minutes were great."

"You really think so?" Xion bashfully rubbed the back of her head. "I mean..I tried my best...but you don't think I won the match too, do you?!"

"Nah. You both forfeited the match, your competitor left before the match was decided and being honest with ya, didn't look like the match was slated in your favor. So tell you what, next time, if you prove to me you have what it takes I might consider you a hero after all that. Besides, you did get that pink haired chick outta here."

"Oh thanks, what an honor it is," Xion said sarcastically.

"That's the spirit," Phil said, not picking up on her sarcasm.

"-Phiiil!" Yelled Hercules from behind. He rushed over to them, then stopped to catch his breath. "I'm not too late for my match, am I?"

"Nope. Your match's cancelled, champ."

"WHAT?!"

"Yep. Xion here had to pick up the slack for ya. By the way, you've met this girl, right?"

"Uh, yeah, kind of." He turned his attention to Xion. "Good to see ya again Xion, it's been awhile, huh?"

"Mm hm, has the heartless caused you any problems lately?"

"Funny that you mention it because I was out beating them up by Thebes—that's why I was so late."

Phil shook his head. "Geez, you need to work on your time kid. I'm thinking...50 laps around the Coliseum should whip you up into shape. "

"Oh man..." Hercules ran out and Xion followed suit.

On her way out of the Coliseum, she summoned a pencil and paper and began spilling her thoughts onto the paper. _"'The Myserious Solider goes by the name of Lightning—and rightfully so for her lightning fast techniques and moveset. She's a young woman who was exiled from her own world and is on a journey to search for her lost sister. As it stands, she poses not threat to the Organization.'"_ By the time she finished up her last sentence, she was already back outside of the Coliseum where Hercules was jogging around.

 _'After all that, I still haven't found that absent silhouette yet. Guess I'll have to try again another time.'_ She created a dark portal after making sure Hercules was nowhere in sight, then slipped through.

OoO

 _'...Yes! I'm not the last one!'_ Xion ran down to the ledge and plopped down next to Roxas. "What's up, Roxas! Have any luck on your mission?" She asked.

"Oh hey Xion, and actually yeah, I kind of found the absent silhouette by accident. 'Cause I went to this Peddler's shop to buy some potions and I found some spooky shadow sitting in the corner. When I touched it was warped back to the old mansion at Twilight Town and Vexen was there."

"What? But I thought he died. What's he doing at Twilight Town?"

"I don't think it's 'Twilight Town' Twilight Town, but a figment of what remained of Vexen's memories. That's the last place he was before Axel apparently killed him."

"Whoa! Axel did what?"

"I would take it lightly. Vexen told me Axel wasn't who I thought he was and that he's some sort of assassin or something, but I think it's just a load of junk to mess with my head."

"Right, besides, Axel totally doesn't seem like the assassin type, no way!"

"Exactly! He's way too loud and laidback for anything serious like an assassin." Roxas slumped back onto the clock's face. "So what happened on your mission?"

"I didn't find the absent silhouette, but I did fight some girl named Lightning and did the report I was supposed to do. She's so strong...and scary too, I'm still sore from that fight."

"Geez, well, at least you could make it back in one piece!"

"That's what I told myself so I could push through...which speaking of, where is Axel?"

"No idea and I so need some ice cream right about now."

"—Really now? Guess I came just in time," Axel said, he approached Roxas and Xion with three ice creams already in his hand meaning he knew he'd run a little late. "But I wasn't too late, was I?" He passed out their ice creams to them and then took his seat on the clock tower ledge.

"Maybe just a little..." Xion said.

Axel bit into his ice cream, then looked to Roxas and Xion. "Well I wouldn't be if my mission wasn't so crappy," He said with a mouthful of ice cream. "My head was killing me, I didn't find the absent silhouette anywhere and to top it off it was raining hard. Hope you guys had better luck than me."

"Not me, didn't find any either, but Roxas found one," Xion said.

"Yep, I found Vexen!"

"Vexen...ugh, hoped I never had to hear his name again."

"He was still as weird as I remember. He also said that you killed him and some other stuff like you were an assassin."

Axel went quiet.

Roxas and Xion exchanged worried glances before both turning to Axel.

"Axel..." Roxas said quietly. "That's...not true, is it?"

"...before you guys joined the Organization, things were a lot different. I guess I've changed so much because of you two and now I..." He glanced at Roxas and Xion's eager faces then shook his head. "Nevermind, it's dumb anyways."

"WHAT?! You can't leave us hanging like that," Roxas said.

"Yeah! You so have tell us now that you brought it up!" Xion added.

"Huh? You guys sure do get on my nerves sometimes." Axel self-consciously rubbed The back of his hair. "I was just gonna say now I think being a nobody is less annoying."

Roxas and Xon's eager facial expressions dropped into annoyance.

"Wow, that was kind of lame," Xion said.

Roxas nodded in agreement. "I know, Axel's still bad with words after all this time." He teased.

Axel reached over and ruffled Roxas' hair. "You can't keep a lid on that mouth of yours, eh?"

"Hey!" Roxas laughed as he fixed his messy hair.

"But...we get what you mean, Axel, even if it was a little campy," Xion said, she elbowed Roxas in his side. "Right, Roxas?"

"Uh huh, but still, we should leave all the mushy friendship speeches to Xion!"

The three shared a laugh together, ending their day on a more positive note.

I always hoped days like this could last forever, but that was the last day I remember before everything turned on its head. Those days...even now as my existence slowly fades away and my world falls apart into nothing...I will never forget them.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So after this chapter marks a huge turning point in the story, there's going to be new worlds to explore, new characters to meet, and much more on the individual stories of each of the organization members


	16. Rival Destinies

**Day 149**

Xion woke up from bed with a startle, she frantically searched around the cluttered room. "Wait...I know where I'm at...I'm home." She muttered to herself. _'I wonder why I've been having that same dream so much lately.'_

As she mused on the thought, Xion dragged herself out of bed, then looked around for her comb under the piles of accumulating spell books and other items she collected. "...There!" After moving away a twin pack of hi-potions, she found her comb and went over to the back window where her reflection casted.

Xion stared at her reflection, frowning. _'I'm convinced my hair's never gonna grow past an inch at this rate.'_ She sighed while combing through her hair. _'So much for trying a new hairstyle, welll...maybe I could try one thing!'_

Satisfied with her new hairstyle, Xion picked up a new spell to memorize, then started down the hallway for the Gray Room. "Let's see, oh, I remember buying Lightning Strike a few weeks ago. I wonder why I haven't tried learning it, this looks so easy!"

Her keyblade formed in her hand. 'And now I just apply lightning magic.' The keyblade was veiled in an electric coat, sparks flew from the tip of the blade and bounced on the floor. She wavered it around for a few moments before returning it to its natural state.

"—Heeeey! Xion!"

' _That's Roxas.'_ She turned behind to see Roxas in nothing, but a white towel hanging loosely around his waist and a shorter, white towel hugging the back of his neck. "R-Roxas...m-morning..." She croaked, startled by his exposed body.

"Morning, you're up early today!"

"I had a bad dream that woke me up and I guess I didn't feel like going back to sleep."

"Really? I had a bad dream today too, weird, huh? What was your dream about?"

"Well it starts off in this beach place and I'm with Kairi and this other boy, then suddenly, a storm hits and I'm being eaten alive by heartless." She shook her head. "I haven't been able to get a lot of sleep lately."

"...oh." He said quietly.

"What's wrong?"

"...I've been having the exact same dream too lately, what do you think it means?"

"Hopefully nothing, I mean, we already know we're interconnected some way, maybe dreams are a part of it too."

Roxas' eyes grew wide with shock. "Y-You've always been having the same dreams as me?!"

Xion thought for a moment. "...ok so last week I had a dream I was eating ice cream with Lumiere and then I realized I was the ice cream he was eating and then Saïx came and said I still have a mission I need to do. Then he turned into ice cream and well the rest is kind of hazy, but it was super weird, did you have that dream last week?"

"Let's see...last week the dream I had I was..." He started blushing profusely when he remembered the dream he had. "Uh...um...I definitely didn't have the dream you did."

Xion rolled her eyes. "Then that means we don't share the same dreams, it's only that particular dream we share. It could be trying to tell us something, like...a bad omen."

"Or memories we had as a human." His eyes settled on Xion long enough for her to notice, before they quickly darted away.

"What?" Xion asked, then added, "Is there something on my face?"

"It's nothing." He glanced at Xion again who was beginning to get ticked off. 'I better tell her, she's mad at me anyways.' "...it's just that...you look like Kairi," He said in a low whisper.

"But, I always look like her," She said, immediately understanding his vague gesture. "Is it because of the way I parted my hair?"

"Yeah, when I look at you, I see her."

"Well, that's nothing new," Her arms were crossed—not a good sign for Roxas. "Why'd you have to make this so awkward?"

Roxas rubbed the back of his back. "I dunno, I thought it was a pretty weird thing to say."

"That's the least weirdest thing I've heard from you, trust me." Xion shook her head. "Whatever. I'm gonna go get my mission over with, I bet since I'm up so early, Saïx has some pretty good ones for me!"

"Eh, I don't think it works like that-hey, wait up!" Roxas ran behind Xion down the hall and into the Gray room. Being as early as they were, only Saïx was present, drinking coffee at the back table.

Saïx saw they were approaching the back table so he shuffled through the mission reports for their appropriate mission. "Your early arrival is unexpected," He commented, pulling out two slips of paper.

"Just thought we get a head start on the day," Roxas said.

"We both had trouble sleeping." Xion elaborated.

"I see. Maybe you two should practice not sleeping at all." He gestured to the steaming cup of coffee sitting at the edge of the table. "You get much more work done that way."

Xion and Roxas exchanged worried glances.

"We're fine, thanks," Xion said.

"Suit yourself." Saïx handed out the mission report to Xion and Roxas respectively. "Xion, your mission is of critical importance. A mysterious man who bares the same cloak as the Organization has been spotted in Beast's Castle and I entrust you will be able to handle him."

"Wait...handle him?!"

"Kill him. He's nothing, but a bother to the Organization and he's part of the reason why we're down to half our members as is. We need him to be dealt with as soon as possible."

Roxas glanced at Xion who looked absolutely terrified. "Ok, but if Xion's mission is so important, how come you're sending me to Hollow Bastion to collect hearts and not with her?"

Saïx glared at Roxas. "You know exactly why. Lest you both be gone for another week in that wretched castle."

_'Geez, though he'd forget that by now.'_

Saïx continued. "Also, Xion's displayed a certain level of competence that I trust she will be able to complete this mission on her own. As all Organization members are expected to."

' _He's really trusting me for once, this is so nerve-wracking.'_ Xion took another read through her report before nodding to Saïx. "I'll try my best, sir." She turned to Roxas next. "See you soon Roxas.”

"Yeah, at the clock tower later."

"Of course! Wait, Roxas..you should probably put some clothes on before you go."

"O-Oh, right..." Roxas scrambled out of the Gray room to retrieve his Organization cloak while Xion made her way from the darkness to snow tipped world of Beast's castle.

OoO

Xion stepped on the bridge that opened to the castle, it was night and the moon and stars hung high in the sky, lighting her way to the entrance. As she made her way down, she went through the mission in her head, over thinking every detail as usual. _'So I find this imposter and write a report...I guess that seems easy enough, but how did they get their hands on a cloak when they're not even a part of the Organization.'_

Silence settled all around her, making her once gentle steps echoed around the bridge with a level of eeriness. Her keyblade came to her hand, unconsciously, and she clutched the handle. _'Saïx is counting on me, I don't want to let him down, but...I'm scared. This is a Class A mission after all.'_

*step

*step

Xion paused and stood in place.

*Step

*Step

 _'Someone's approaching me!'_ She twirled around with her keyblade held out in front of her. "Show yourself!" She demanded.

Moments that dragged on for hours passed as a figure in the shadows slowly took the form of a young man in a long black cloak. He had long silver hair and a black band that covered his eyes. Xion stared at him, dazed. _'It's...It's that boy with the silver hair.'_ "Wh-Who are you?!" She yelled.

"That's not important..."

She ran towards him, prepared to swing at him, but he effortlessly moved out of the way.

Xion stopped on a dime, spinning her keyblade around to clash with the imposter's own weapon. "I-Is that a keyblade?!" She brought her blade down harder. "Where'd do you get that from?! Tell me!"

"Why should I?"

"Then don't." She swept her leg forward, and kicked him in the stomach.

Nothing. Not an even a flinch. The imposter merely grabbed Xion by the leg. "Nice try," He said before turning her over and throwing her to the ground.

"Why does your voice sound so familiar..." He briefly lifted his blindfold and saw her face. "Kairi..." He hesitated, then shook his head. "No...you're not Kairi. You're an imposter, just like that keyblade of yours."

"I'm not an imposter!"

The young man appeared right in front of Xion and snatched her keyblade away. Xion could only stare helplessly at him, watching her keyblade crumbled in his hand and the pieces of fragmented light fell on the floor like a broken glass.

Xion fell on her knees, grasping at what remained of her keyblade. Her mind was blank, void of thought until she looked back up at his face again and suddenly she remembered. "How could you..." She muttered.

Her fingers curled into a fist and she slowly rose to her feet. "They worked so hard to get my keyblade back and you just destroy it like that?! I hate you!" She pounded on his chest as hard as she could.

 _'She's different from the other nobodies.'_ "Your keyblade is a sham—it's worthless. Remember that," He said.

"It's not a sham! If anyone's a sham, it's you!"

"Fair enough. Guess you could say...I'm the biggest nobody of them all."

XxXX

**Day 150**

Xion woke up with a startle. "W-Wait where am...oh, I'm here again. I have to thank them." A pen and paper formed in her hand, after writing down a short message, she placed the slip of paper on the nightstand.

Before departing from Belle's room, she attempted to summon her keyblade again, but nothing came to her hand. _'...I'll worry about that later.'_ Xion dragged herself through a dark portal and into the Gray room.

"Well? What came of the imposter." Saïx asked, approaching her as soon as he saw her come in.

Xion shook her head. "He...my target...escaped."

"That won't do. That mission was of critical importance, we can't afford mistakes or failures. Especially not with you."

"If you give me another chance, I promise I'll find him again, no matter how long it takes!"

"Absolutely not. I should've never trusted a mistake, that's all you'll ever be."

"SHUT UP!" Xion snapped. "At least I'm actually contributing to Kingdom hearts, you...you can't! You don't get to decide who's a mistake and who's not because we all equally don't have hearts. Everyone depends on me and Roxas, not you!"

Saïx narrowed his eyes. "Know your place or you will quickly see how 'dependable' you are once you're obliterated into nothingness. You make the work of the Organization easier, not impossible. So I'll see to it you do just that and nothing more until further notice."

He walked away, but Xion could still feel the weight of his words bearing down on her. _'Obliterated into nothingness.'_

"Xion?"

She saw Roxas standing by her, worried.

"Roxas." She spoke his name softly.

A dark portal manifested from behind them and she left him without another word.

OoO

Xion stepped onto the balcony of Beast's castle. _'...I'll find him again.'_

XxXX

**Day 151**

Xion watched the night dip into day and the moon hide behind the shining sun. _'It's already a new day.'_ She thought to herself, exhausted from a sleepless night. _'I thought he'd stay around by the castle, but I guess I shouldn't expect for him to come back so soon.'_ Her hands squeezed the railing. _'Still, I'd just be lying to myself if I said I didn't want to go back and see them ag...'_

A thought, no, a feeling she kept locked away in the back of her mind gnawed at her. 'I wish...I didn't have to do this. I wish I was strong enough to take care of myself like they do.' When she thought of them, she couldn't also help, but think about the reason why she wasn't with them.

"Xion!"

_'His voice? Heh, I guess I wanna see him so bad that I'm imagining he's here.'_

"Xion, there you are!"

Suddenly, she was enveloped by his warmth as she felt his chest press on her back. "You're here," She said.

"Yeah, of course." He let go of her. "I looked everywhere for you, I was so worried, but I'm glad you're ok now."

"I'm...I'm sorry I ran off like that. I was just so mad about what Saïx said. He called me a 'mistake' as if he has any right to."

"A 'mistake'? I'm so sorry he said that to you…oh, I know what'll cheer you up!"

"What would that be?"

"Why don't we go on a mission together, it's always more fun when I'm with you!"

Xion smiled. "So where is this mission in mind at?"

"Halloween town, been there before?"

"Nope, but it sounds fun. Let's go!"

"Right!"

OoO

Roxas and Xion entered into a maze of tombstones surrounding them, with a full moon over their heads in the ever-lasting night sky. "So this is Halloween Town?" Xion wondered aloud.

"Yeah, kind of...whoa. Xion, there's bat wings on your back!"

"Seriously?" She twisted her back around to see the small pair bat wings sprouting from her back. "That's so cool, and...you have fangs and a mask on your head, Roxas!"

"Sweet, this is like so awesome! I never noticed it."

"I bet we have them so we can blend in with this world better, but we still kind of stick out like a sore thumb with our cloaks and all."

"Gold point, but it might make the ghosts go away, hey you aren't scared of ghost are you?"

"Uh, n-no way! Why would I be scared of ghosts!"

"'Cause you're like the biggest scaredy cat I know, now come on, we got 25 hearts to collect." Roxas walked ahead, stepping over the heaps of cobwebs littered over the dead, gray grass.

Xion rolled her eyes at Roxas' remark, but stuck close to him while they made their way down to the gates that lead to the heart of Halloween Town; Guillotine plaza.

"Since we're doubling up we should collect way more than 25 hearts," Xion said as they were nearing the gates. 'Not that I can even use the keyblade...man, why I do speak without thinking so much.'

"Sure, sounds like a plan, wanna make it a game?"

"First one to 50 wins, loser has to buy," She suggested.

"Good one! I can't wait to see your face when I totally blow you out of the park."

"We'll see about that."

"Right, I'm so pumped now!"

Xion smiled wryly. 'What did I get myself into.'

When they approached the gate, it creaked open by itself, welcoming to the town square. "Talk about a warm welcome," Roxas said.

"Y-Yeah," She said weakly. 'I'm officially freaked out now and we haven't even begun to explore this place.'

They went through the gates to a large plaza where ghosts and ghouls alike strolled around town, enjoying the spooky scenery. In the center of the plaza was a giant fountain, they walked over to it and found it full of foggy, green water.

"Think it tastes weird, or is it like normal water," Roxas said.

"Definitely weird. I mean, green water should raise a few red flags," She stuck her hand in the water and swirled it around. "Axel would totally drinks some of this though."

"Heh heh, think about all the healing magic you'd have to cast on him afterwards to make sure he doesn't, you know, die."

"I have been working on some dispel magic, by the way, learn any new spells yourself?"

He stuck out one finger. "Sparkra and..." Then he stuck out another finger. "Banishra. They're light spells, I'm pretty good at those."

"Well, our element is light after all, 'course you'd be the best at light spells, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't slack off on the other elements."

"I know, but since you're here I don't have to worry about it."

"Oh Roxas...hey, you hear that, sounds like screams."

"That's normal, but they do sound more blood curdling than usual. Think something's going on?"

"Yep, we should go check it out."

Going down further into town where the screams were the loudest, they found a giant mechanical monster going haywire. There was a lanky skeleton along with a two faced mayor running after the machine.

"It's a heartless, we have to help them out!" After summoning his keyblade, he ran straight ahead the monster.

"Wait Roxas, hold on!"

Sensing Roxas' presence, the monster extended one of it's tube like arms and plucked Roxas right off the ground. "Gah! Let me go so I can kick that stupid grin off your face!"

The mecha monster responded with unhinging its giant mouth, revealing a cascade of razor sharp teeth. "...Uh oh..." Roxas muttered.

"Blizzara!"

Its arm was covered in a thick layer of ice that stopped it from moving it any further. Xion jumped up on the arm, then ran to Roxas where she was able to pull him out from its claws.

"You okay?" She asked.

"I'm fine, but watch out!"

She whipped around to see its second arm bolting towards them. Just then, her keyblade materialized in her hands and it drove into the mecha monster's hand.

"Wh-What?!"

"Good idea," Roxas said.

While the mecha monster was momentarily stunned, he ran down the arm to it's head where he lodged his keyblade. "Banishra!" He yelled, a beam of light tunneled down from the head all the way to the wheels, causing the machine to explode in a burst of light that sent thousands of mechanical parts and oil flying across town.

From the heaps of debris, dozens of hearts floated into the night sky, giving life to a once dead night.

"So...that machine was filled with heartless." Xion said. "Here we thought it was just one big heartless."

"How many of them do you think were crammed into that thing?" Roxas asked.

"Around 100 or so," Said the skeleton as he was approaching them. "You guys really saved us back there, we can't thank you enough."

"Aw, it was nothing," Roxas said.

"We're happy to help. By the way, how do you know exactly how many heartless were in there."

"Because me and The mayor put them in there. You see those heartless were getting in the way of our preparations for this year's Halloween, so Dr. Finkelstein had the bright idea of putting them to use by using them in his latest invention. So we rounded up as much heartless as we could and put them all into that machine. As you can see, it didn't work out so well." He explained. "Looks like we'll have to try a different approach next time."

"Next time?!" Exclaimed the mayor, running up to them. "Jack, there won't be a next time if we keep that up. Halloween is only 8 weeks away, we don't have time for anymore setbacks."

"Alright, we'll cross that idea off the list, but I still want to incorporate the heartless somehow in this year's Halloween festival since I don't see them going away anytime soon," Jack said.

The mayor's face literally switched to a happy one when he faced the two nobodies. "You two must be exorcists like that one boy, we sure are glad you came when you did."

'So Sora's been here too? Figures.' "Anytime, but we should get going. See you guys later um..."

"Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king."

"And I'm the mayor!"

"Right. Jack and The mayor, we'll see you later, sorry to leave on such short notice," Xion said, she left shortly after, with Roxas following behind her.

"Man, we collected like 100 hearts, Saïx is gonna be so happy," Roxas said.

"I don't think Saïx knows what happiness is."

"Got me there."

They entered through a dark portal and returned to the Gray room.

"Xion, Roxas, there you are, what did I say about doubling up on missions," Saïx said.

"H-Hold up, we ended up collecting 100 hearts 'cause we doubled up, that's gotta count for somethin, right?" Roxas asked.

"Hm, 100? I suppose you won't be punished for now, keep up the good work."

When he finally left, Roxas turned to Xion with a big smile on his face. "See what I'd tell ya? How about we get that ice cream now, I'll buy since you did save my butt back there and everything."

She smirked. "I sure did, it's the least you can do, really."

"Heh, don't go getting a big head now. Come on, let's go to the usual place."

OoO

Roxas and Xion sat down on the ledge of the clock tower, enjoying the sunset as they usually did

"I don't think Axel's gonna make it," Roxas said, he clenched his stomach. "I'm starting to get hungry too."

"What? We don't need to eat, Roxas. I think you're just imaging it."

"Yeah well say that to my stomach." He sighed, then laid back on the clock tower's face. "Wonder why Axel's so late all the time. Guess we got the work done a little bit too fast, huh?"

"..." _'Now I know for sure, I only got my keyblade back because Roxas was here with me, I knew I could never summon it myself. Maybe I am just a sham and Roxas is the real deal. How else could he destroy my keyblade like it was nothing, like I was nothing…'_

"Xion? Hey... Xion!"

"Hm?"

"You ok?"

"Sorry. My mind's on other things. Roxas..."

"Yeah?"

"Why are we doing all this, working for the Organization I mean."

"So we can get hearts of our own, right?"

"But why? We have emotions, Roxas. We have dreams, we have memories, we have personality. Even if we are faking it, that has to mean something too. The more I think about it, the more I think we're not any different from other people."

"That's why we need to get hearts, even if we aren't any different from other people, we can leave the Organization and we won't ever have to do anything for them. We'll only do things for ourselves."

"I guess we really are servants, then when you put it like that."

"Was there ever any doubt?"

"At first, but now I feel more like a tool than anything. I wish I knew why I was here, how I got here. Why I have all these strange dreams and memories that feel like they aren't even mine." After letting out a long sigh, she stood up. "I'm sorry, but I have to go."

"You're not gonna stay for ice cream?"

"There's something else I have to do."

"...are you going back to that place again where you failed your mission?"

"And what if I am?" She shot back.

"I don't think you should, it's too dangerous, what if you get hurt?"

"'What if I get hurt'? Are you serious?! Ugh...this don't even concern you, will you just leave me alone!"

"Xion! Why are you so stubborn like this all the time, why can't you admit to yourself that you're not as strong as everyone else, but that's ok! They don't matter, they're not here for you...why don't you understand that."

"You really don't get it, then again, why would you? You're not the one being called a mistake..."


	17. What I Mean To You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has a dual POV, just a heads up in case you get confused

**Day 152**

_Xion..._

_'Looks like all I have to do is write a report over a non combative heartless and then afterwards I go back to look for him.'_ She stuffed the report back in her report and continued down the quiet road of Twilight town. ' _The problem now is finding it. Wonder what a non combative heartless even looks like?'_

Bored, she decided to summon her keyblade and twirl it around her arm. _'Since I'm here, it wouldn't hurt to check in with Eiko and Vivi, then with Hayner and his friends. It's a slow day after all. Anything to get Roxas off my mind.'_ She darted down the street to the sandlot where Eiko was pacing around piles of scrolls.

"Hey, Eiko! What's up!" Xion greeted.

"Xion, Xion, Xion!" Eiko cheered, she ran up to her and hugged Xion's legs. "I hope you've been practicing your magic!"

"I have, I finally learned a light spell, but I'm still pretty uncomfortable with summoning for now. Hey, where's Vivi?"

"UGH! Who cares?! I was working on the perfect cure all spell and he messed it up! I'm so mad!"

"That's funny, I'm really mad at my friend too, because he said I was stubborn."

"He said that? What a jerk, you're not stubborn at all."

"I know! I'm just tired of losing and being weak. I want to prove myself for myself, not for him."

"Man, boys are dumb, they don't know anything about us."

"You can say that again. Hey, wanna come with me to find Olette? It's no fun being alone."

"Olette! Yeah! Let's go see her!"

"Sounds like you already know her."

"I do! Olette is the best, she always buys me ice cream and gives me pocket change. She reminds me of Garnet, but they're both equally nice, even if Garnet is kinda dense sometimes. See, you can't tell her I told you, but she loves Zidane a whole bunch, even though she'll never admit it and I do too, but that's besides the point."

Xion giggled. "This Zidane guy must be quite the charmer."

"Yeah, he's sooo handsome and smart and funny and nice and kind and cool and strong and talented and tall and cute and caring and honest and ..."

"He he, I think I get it already, Eiko. I'm still on the lookout for them too, of course."

"I never doubted you weren't, so where do you think Olette is anyways."

"No idea, what're her favorite places to go you think?"

"Well, usually she hangs around those sweaty boys and they go to this weird place down by central station. But today I saw her walking alone around the shopping district, she might still be there."

"The shopping district? I've never heard of that place before, where is it?"

"A little ways past the Tram Commons, I'll show you." Eiko grabbed Xion by the hand and dragged her out of the sandlot down to a place known as the shopping district.

"Pretty neat, huh," Eiko said.

"Yeah, I can't believe I missed this place, all the times I've been here."

"Maybe you've been here and just never realized it."

"Heh, that sounds like something I'd do."

Dozens of shops, stores, and restaurants alike enclosed the district, selling everything and anything Xion could ever imagine. From your everyday magic spell to the latest fashion trends. It was a large area that took up two and a half blocks of the Tram Commons and laid just outside of where the trams made its day to day stops.

Xion, excited, fished her special moogle munny pouch from her pocket and opened it right up. "...oh..man...empty. I forgot all my munny at home!"

"Munny? Who needs it!" Eiko boasted. "I'll teach you a thing or two about borrowing, it's a life skill."

"Uh, I'll pass, and doesn't Olette give you pocket change?"

"Yeah, but it's only like 50 munny, it's not enough to buy all the cool stuff."

 _'I can't imagine what she considers 'cool stuff'.'_ "Well it's not like we're here for ourselves, we're here Olette. Let's start looking around for her."

"You got it!"

Xion and Eiko walked around the district, looking for any signs of Olette. After about five minutes of walking, though, they sat down on a bench that overlooked the sea. "There's no way we're going to find her in that big crowd," Xion said.

"I just think you're lazy, Xion!"

"What, I'm not lazy! I'm just trying to conserve energy, besides you sat here with me!"

"To keep you company, duh! Well don't worry about it, I'll wait here with you until you get your lazy butt back up."

Xion smiled. "Oh, you're too kind,"

"He he...hey, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Why do you wear that black cloak all the time? Don't you ever get hot?"

"Yeah, all the time, but I've learned to deal with it. I mean, I rather be hot, than get eaten alive by the darkness."

"The darkness? Oh you mean those monsters, yeah I see 'em around a lot, especially by the old mansion. Seifer and his gang make a point in trying to get rid of them, but they don't do a very good job."

"Huh, seriously?" 'I thought the heartless only appeared when the keyblade is near. Or maybe, that just makes them come out more.'

"Yep. Luckily they only appear in really dark, creepy places where no one but Seifer and his gang would hang out, so I guess it makes sense Why they'd tried to stand up against them."

"I see..."

"And it's your guy's job to get rid of those monsters scaring us, right? Like exterminators, but for monsters."

"You could say that, sure. I never actually thought of it that way."

"—HEEEEY! EIKO! XION!" Olette called out.

Xion and Eiko saw Olette running up to them with dozens of shopping bags hanging loosely around her arms. She stopped shortly at the bench and took a moment to catch her breath. "...so...how...are...you...guys...doing…" She said, speaking in between shallow breaths.

"Good I guess." Xion answered. "By the way, where are your friends?"

"I have no idea, they didn't wanna go shopping with me so they're probably doing stupid stuff. Too bad, they missed out on a really good sale."

"Yeah, you sure got a lotta stuff, I hope you didn't spend all your munny though," Eiko said.

"No I still have...Oh...I see, hold on." She dropped her bags and went through her purse for some munny, then handed a few to Eiko who giddily accepted it. "You want some munny too, Xion? Doesn't hurt to keep a little extra cash in your pockets."

"No thanks, I'll make all the munny I need as soon as I catch this monster I'm after."

"A monster? Oh right, I heard from this moogle that there was apparently a possessed gumball machine wreaking havoc on their shop. That might be the monster you're looking for I bet, which reminds me, where's Roxas?"

"They're fighting with each other right now." Eiko answered.

"That really sucks. What happened?"

"We got into this argument and Roxas said I was too stubborn. He treated me like a child, as if I don't know what I'm doing is dangerous, but I'll do it anyways without hesitation if that means I can prove myself. He doesn't get it at all," Xion said.

"Maybe he's just worried about you, people who care about you tend to do that a lot," Olette said.

"But doesn't he believe in me? After everything we've been through... He said I should accept being weak, but being weak is exactly what lead to this mess. I want to be a stronger person for myself as much as I want to be stronger for him and make sure he never gets hurt."

"I get it, he's being way overprotective, isn't he? You want him to depend on you...I think you should tell him that."

"Yeah, he'll understand. If he's a good friend, he'll trust you no matter what." Eiko added.

Olette nodded. "Exactly! Just tell him how you feel."

"How I feel..."

XxXX

_Roxas..._

_'All I have to do today is collect 15 hearts in Twilight Town, man this is gonna be an easy day. I sure need it after all.'_ Roxas thought as he traversed the still streets of Twilight Town.

"AAAAAH! SOMEONE HELP MEEEEEE!" Screamed a small black mage while he was running down the street away from a horde of heartless.

"Hold on!" Roxas summoned his keyblade. "Let's go—lightning!"

A bolt of lightning struck in between the cluster of shadows that scattered them apart, Roxas then threw his keyblade for a circle raid attack that destroyed all the heartless in one giant swing. When his keyblade came back to him, he faced Vivi with a small smile, "You ok?" He asked.

"Yeah! Thanks Roxas!"

Roxas blinked. "You...You know my name?"

"Mm hm, I guess that means you don't remember me?"

He rubbed the back of his head. "Nope, sorry about that."

"Well I'm Vivi, nice to meet you again. I've heard a lot about you from Xion, she says you're a really great."

"She did? That must've been a while ago 'cause I'm pretty sure she hates my guts right now."

"Huh, why?"

"I dunno. I was just worried for her and she got super mad. She even actively avoided me this morning, if that isn't hate I don't know what it is."

"Oh wow, I think I have the same problem too. I tried to help my friend out with this spell she was working on and then she said I messed everything up and that she didn't wanna see my face again. I was just trying to help out, I don't know why she got so mad." He explained.

"Me neither. I know, we should do something fun to get our minds off of them!"

"Good idea! What should we do!"

"Uh...well um...let's just walk around town and see what everyone else is up to 'till we think of something."

"Ok!"

It was another typical day in Twilight Town, quiet and not particularly crowded. Yet another lazy afternoon among the dozens the town had to offer. "So...what do you guys do anyways?" Vivi asked suddenly.

"Huh? Oh...you mean with the group I'm in." Roxas thought for a moment. "We get rid of the monsters in the worlds we visit."

"Whoa, that's so cool! Can I be apart of the group too?"

"Eh, not just anyone can be in it! You have to be at least ..." He raised his hand high above Vivi. "This tall. Otherwise you won't be able to fit the coat we wear."

"Aw, that's no fair. I hope I get taller when I'm older like you!"

"Keep dreamin' kid and maaaybe you'll be as tall as me. Maybe. Oh and I almost forgot, you gotta be super tough and str—" He was suddenly pushed from behind and he stumbled forward. "H-Hey! Who did that?!"

He turned around to see Hayner grinning back at him along with Pence by his side. "What's up you two, long time no see!"

"Yeah, how's it going guys, what're you guys up to?"

"Just hanging out, you?" Pence asked.

"Us to," Vivi said.

"Uh huh, well since we're all here, I'm down for a game of tag, you know, to loosen things up," Hayner said.

"Tag?"

"You don't know what 'tag' is? Looks like someone's been living under a rock!"

"Shut up! Will you tell me what it is or not."

"Hey calm down, listen, someone's 'it' and they try to tag the other people as they run away. It's super easy to get."

"Ok, I think I get it. So I just tag you guys as you run away from me, cool, then I'll be it."

"Alright, but you gotta give us some time to run first. How's ten seconds sound?"

"Nah. I'll give you guys a minute."

"Really now? Someone's cocky. Ok, you asked for it, let's go boys!"

The three of them ran away from Roxas while he stayed behind. _'These guys sure are slowpokes. I would've been half way across town by now, I hope I can still run really fast when I become human. That'll save me some time. Speaking of time…'_ He stretched his arms and legs out. _'It's about time for me to catch 'em.'_

In the minute Roxas gave the boys, he could see them nearing the horizon at the end of the street that opened up to the Tram Commons. Smirking, he flew down the street and was able to catch up to them in mere seconds.

Before they could even react to Roxas' unexpected presence, he tagged all three of them in one fell swoop. "How about next time I give you five minutes," Roxas cheekily remarked.

"Ugh..Roxas no fair." Vivi muttered.

"Yeah, you never said you can run faster than a friggin train!" Hayner exclaimed.

"I think we need a full hour if that's how fast you run," Pence said. "I'm already out of breath, but you don't even look like you broke a sweat."

"Heh heh, running's always been my thing. Even Xion has a tough time catching up...with me..." He sighed.

"Hey man, what's with the long face?" Hayner asked.

"It's a long story..."

"No wait, I think I get it. You broke up with your girlfriend, right? That's why Xion isn't here."

"I, uh, what? I have no idea what you're talking about, but Xion is super mad at me. I don't even know why, I was just showing that I cared for her. Guess she took it the wrong way."

"Man, been there done that. Just give her some space and let things work out themselves," Pence suggested.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

"Maybe I should do that too," Vivi said.

"It's a fix all solution really," Hayner said.

"Right. Well, I gotta get going guys, I just remembered what I'm doing here in the first place. See ya and thanks for the advice!"

"Catch ya later, Roxas!"

OoO

After making quick work of the relatively small amount of heartless he had to kill, Roxas wound up at the clock tower's ledge, as he always did. _'Wonder how much time I should give anyways? A couple of hours? A day? Well no more than two days. Maybe I won't even have to wait if she comes to me and we can work things out, but Xion would never do that. She's way too stubborn to admit it.'_

"Yo Roxas...oh, no Xion?"

"Don't hold your breath."

Axel sat down beside him. "Did something happen yesterday between you and her?"

"Yeah kind of."

"...Don't sweat it. Girls like her are so complicated."

"Hey, how'd you know what I was thinking."

"Because guys like you aren't. Don't take it personally, most nobodies aren't."

"I...I guess that makes sense. They sure don't get mad at you for no reason, but if girl nobodies are complicated. What does that mean for real girls?"

"That's a whole other story. I think it's like a double dose of complicated-ness."

"Now I'm officially lost."

"Just remember, when dealing with girls, don't push the wrong buttons."

"Wish I knew that before, I don't know what 'wrong buttons' I pushed to make her so mad. I was just caring for her."

"Hm? Did you insult her?"

"No...well maybe...I don't know! Ok, here's the thing, she messed up this mission she was on and Saïx called her a mistake. So she decided to go back and retry her mission, I didn't want her to get hurt, but she kept on pushing me away. Then I said she was stubborn and then she said I didn't understand anything."

 _'I'm gonna give that bastard Saïx a piece of my mind.'_ "Roxas, I don't think you've realized this, and knowing Xion, she'll probably never tell you, but she looks up to you. She sees all the stuff you've done for her and wants to do the same for you, but she also wants for you to rely on her more than anything."

"Me rely on her? I guess I haven't been doing that lately, I just don't want to be a burden, besides, I can handle myself."

Axel shook his head. "No Roxas...you really can't."

"Oh thanks! Like you know anything anyways!"

"Geez, I can see why Xion got mad at you."

"What?! You're the one acting like a total know-it-all..."

"Yeah well you're acting like an idiot! How do you think you've made Xion feel all the times she's watched you do everything for her, it's one thing to say you're here equal, and it's another to act like she's incompetent. She's your partner, isn't she?"

"..." Roxas stood up suddenly, then left.

XxXX

_Xion..._

Xion threw her keyblade at the gumball machine shaped heartless, making it spill out munny and several useful battle items. "What's this?!" She hit it again and while more munny dropped out, it started bouncing around the street way too fast for her to handle.

"Stop!" The gumball machine froze in place, giving Xion enough time to give it one last conk on its glass head and release its heart. _'I hope there's more around here!'_

"...Xion."

She stood up, then slowly turned around to see Roxas. "What do you want?"

"...I'm sorry. I won't stop you from doing what you want. I trust you know what you're doing, even though I'll still be really worried about you."

"Roxas..." She sighed. "You know I'm here for you."

"I know. I'm here for you too. Let's both do what we can for each other and I won't get in your away anymore."

"No. Don't say that. Promise to stop me if I go too far and end pushing you guys away."

"I promise."

"...Roxas..."

"Yeah?"

"One last thing. Let's get ice cream...together."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bloopers: How not to apologize to girls
> 
> Roxas: ...Xion
> 
> Xion: What do you want?
> 
> Roxas: *takes out a crumbled piece of paper and hands it to her*
> 
> Xion: "I'm sorry for pushing your buttons"
> 
> Xion: ...Roxas...
> 
> Roxas: Xion...
> 
> Xion: *summons her keyblade* You better start running—QUICK


	18. Torn Apart

**Day 153  
**

Just as Xion was ready to walk into the Gray room, she heard an argument going on so she decided to stay hidden behind the corner and listen instead.

"...I don't care where the hell she came from. I'll beat your ass if you ever say shit like that to her again, do you understand that much?"

"Please. Caring so much about 'things' is so like you, I don't even know why you bother to pretend you have feelings. It's pathetic."

"You wanna know what's pathetic? Becoming Xemnas' puppet when you know just as well as I do he'll use and kill you in the end."

"You act is we have a life to live—we don't. We lost that a long time ago, now I have no one to live for, but myself."

"Well some of us haven't given up on life yet and I won't let you bring us all down because you think you're getting a heart and you think you're doing something good for yourself. Burn that bridge by yourself."

"So be it. You've been in denial this long, why not go all the way. Die like everyone else."

"Whatever, but if you say anything like that to her one more time, you sure won't have to worry about getting a heart anymore."

"I'd like to see you try."

A long silence followed by the sound of footsteps. _'I think it's time for me to come in,'_ Xion peeked her head in and saw Saïx was working at his desk while Axel was reclining in one of the chairs.

"Good morning, Axel!" Xion greeted.

Axel raised his hand, giving it a slight wave. "Ready to go on our mission?"

"Wait, 'our mission' we get to go on a mission together?! Dude, that's so sweet, I mean...ahem...that's great. I'm glad we get to work together."

"Heh heh, me too. So, I take you patched things up with Roxas?"

"Yeah, what'd you say to make him apologize to me like that?"

"The usual and stuff you'd never admit to him."

"HUH?! What did you say anyways, Axel?!"

"Why don't you ask him?"

"Seriously...should've known you'd say that. Ok, so about that mission, where to and what's the objective?"

"We're going to hell to do recon. Get ready."

"You're joking right?"

"Wish I was. Apparently there's a place called the 'Underworld' at Olympus Coliseum and we have to go check it out." He eased off the chair, then created a dark portal. "I'm good to go whenever you are."

She nodded. "Let's go!"

OoO

Through the darkness, they reached the Underworld, a land of death that lay underneath the world of light. The Underworld was discolored world with steep, rocky inclines and bottomless pits, a thick fog ensnared their feet as they traversed into the caverns. "This place is way creepy, maybe this really is hell for their world." Xion muttered.

"Wanna know something creepy? This fog we're walking in is the reminiscence of all the lost souls that are trapped in this place forever. Eventually they cluster together and form into heartless."

"Yeah right Axel, you're just trying to freak me out."

"Whatever you say."

They walked into a low tunnel that unwound into a deep cliff dipping into a lower area. Luckily, there were steps that led down to the bottom so neither of them would have to take any chances, however, as they took the steps down an uncanny presence filled them with sudden doubt.

"Y-You feel that too, don't you?" Xion asked, her voice shaky.

"Yep. It's a heartless, I bet, and a big one," Axel said with frankness, keeping his cool. "But it's too dark to really see anything."

"Right." Xion held her hand out, a small flame perched on top of her finger, lighting the dark cavern with a pale orange glow. Xion scanned the area for any disturbances. "Oh! What's that?" Carved out from the light was something she couldn't describe, though, just as soon as she saw it, it darted back into the darkness where light couldn't reach.

*tap

*tap

"Not good!" Axel exclaimed.

"What?!"

"Damn it!" He pulled Xion down by the hood and she was barely able to miss a pair of razor sharp fangs that would've torn her head apart like a piece of meat. "It's a venomous spider," He said.

"A SPIDER?!"

Axel lit his chakrama on fire, revealing a humongous, red hairy spider with green venom oozing from its fangs. A pair of bright yellow eyes stared right back at the two of them, signifying its heartless status.

"Any bright ideas, Xion?"

He shook her. "Xion!"

"...I'm gonna pass out Axel...I feel faint." She murmured.

"Oh great, why do I always get stuck with the icky jobs." He set Xion down. "Let's have some fun!"

The spider lunged for Axel, he jumped backwards and flung his chakrama at the spider. When it lodged in its head, he snapped his fingers and the chakrama exploded like a bomb. While the spider was momentarily stunned, he summoned a new chakrama, then melded his two chakrams into one giant chakrama.

"Firaga!" Axel yelled. His chakrama lit on fire with a powerful flame, he then threw the chakrama and it sliced through the spider's body clean in half. He watched with sudden annoyance as the spider's body disappeared into a cloud of smoke. 'That spider's gonna comeback...but at least it's out of our hair for now.'

With the spider gone, he went back to Xion and shook her awake. "You ok, sleepy head?"

"Axel...I hate spiders..."

"I can tell. Come on, let's keep moving."

They pushed forward into the land of dead, soon reaching a wide valley holding tall rock formations and a maze-like layout that Axel knew would end up getting them lost so he took out his chakrama and etched a marking into the wall. "Stay close to the walls," He said.

"Good idea, I was afraid we were gonna get lost in this place," Xion said.

"We might as well be. I have no idea where to go, I just wanna keep moving forward."

"Ok, then I take that back. I'm afraid because we're lost."

"Heh heh, aren't you always the positive one? Let's see what we can find, as long as we walk in a straight line, we should be fine."

Suddenly, before either of them could take another step, an eerie shriek echoed off the cave walls. Axel, quickly recognizing the sound, attempted to turn back to Xion, but he was snatched up by a pair of gigantic fangs.

"AXEL! NO!" Xion screamed.

"...Xion!" Axel looked around desperately for a way out, but his arms and legs wouldn't budge. Defeated, he set his eyes on Xion's and said, "I'll be ok."

Locked in place by the shackles of her own fear, she saw as Axel's body become trapped in the venomous spider's jaw as if it was a prison.

Then, he was gone and the world was silent.

Her face was wet with tears and her eyes stung. She squeezed her hands together as tight as could until it hurt, then said, "...I'll find you." She ran ahead in the direction of where she think the spider took him, keyblade in hand, and determination guiding her.

'Wherever you are Axel, I'll bring you home.' She flung her keyblade at a bout of heartless that rose from the ground, and they went down just as soon as they materialized.

This process continued as she mowed through the heartless with relative ease, leaving a cloud of hearts trailing behind her.

Xion eventually reached a set of high rise platforms loosely connected by a single set of stairs that lead into another area. It was much brighter than in the damp cave she was in due to the vibrant pit of acid that waited down at the bottom, bubbling in acidity. 'I'd hate to fall into that.' She moved more cautiously and was nearing the end of the cavern when a distinctive voice called out to her.

"Hey, kid, you the keyblade wielder my goons were going on about?"

 _'So I was being followed.'_ She turned around to see none other than the lord of death, Hades, stanning before her with a devilish grin on his face.

"Oh, do my eyes deceive me? What's a little girl like you doing in a place like this?" Hades asked.

"I'm here to find a friend, have you seen him? A spider took him away...he has red hair and wears a black cloak. You can't miss him."

"Hm...spider, red hair...Nope doesn't ring a bell, but I may be willing to offer some assistance if you lend me that keyblade of yours."

"Sorry, but I can't give the keyblade away, even if I wanted to. The keyblade only works for its master."

"Uh huh..." Hades stroked a bony finger across his chin until a smile crept across his face. "Listen kid, if your friend already got taken by that spider, he's already a permanent resident of the Underworld. Yeah, yeah sad story I know, so why don't I strike up a deal with you?"

"What?! Axel's not dead!"

"Please, those spiders have enough venom to choke a centaur. Your friend's as good as gone."

"...So what's your deal?"

"Right-right." He rubbed his hands together, creating blue sparks. "It's pretty simple. All you have to do is die!"

"Time out, you've already lost me. I can't accept those terms."

"You can't accept those terms? But darling, you'll die here anyways, it's just a matter of becoming a prisoner or becoming a soldier and once you're a soldier, you can see your little Axel friend anytime you want. If I were in your shoes, it be a no brainer."

"Die and become a solider for you? Guess that's just one more reason to live!" She held her keyblade across her chest, prepared to charge at Hades.

Hades shook his head. "Why don't you keyblade wielders ever make this easy?" He snapped his fingers and a horde of heartless surrounded Hades. "Don't say I didn't warn ya, girlie." He let himself out of the room, not wanting to get caught up in the chaos his heartless were sure to cause.

 _'I need to do something...I need a powerful spell.'_ Her mind was racing when it suddenly came to her, she reached inside her pocket for a summoning pendant and applied Spark to it. ' _Please...help me out!'_

The pendant burst into a gigantic stack of smoky black clouds. The clouds roared with ferocity, leading Xion to expect a mighty beast to rise from the clouds...only for it to be a shrimpy looking red dragon waking up from a nap.

"Huh? What am I..." The red dragon looked around. "This is some weird dream."

Xion held Mushu by his tail, inspecting it. "This...you can't be it!"

"What the—AAAAAAAH!" The dragon spit fire in Xion's face and well, she collectively lost it. She ran around in circles, flailing her arms and screaming until she ran into the wall.

Mushu, feeling guilty, scrambled over to her. "H-Hey, sorry about that. Happens sometimes, you ok?"

"..."

"Hey, girl, this really isn't the best time to be—"

Xion grabbed Mushu and slowly rose to her feet. Angry now, she pointed him towards the heartless. "Can you do that again, but at the heartless this time?!"

"I got you, girl! One fire from the great dragon, Mushu, coming right up!" Mushu spit small fireballs that shriveled up a few feet away from them, definitely not enough to be destroying any heartless which at this point were almost upon them.

"Uh...I'm just getting warmed up, lemme—"

"Hold on Mushu, I have an idea. I'm going to apply Firaga magic to you and you're going to channel it with your own fire. We only got one shot at this too, this Firaga spell will deplete most of my MP."

"Huh?!"

"Don't worry about it, ok? You can do it." She squeezed the tiny fragon's body. "FIRAGA!" She screamed.

Mushu's body was suddenly fueled with such a tremendous amount of fire energy that when he opened up his jaw, a massive burst of flame expelled from his mouth. The fire expanded as it swallowed the heartless, its tongues lapping at the ceiling, coloring it bright red.

Eventually, the flames collided into the ceiling, leading to its demise. Xion allowed herself to breathe now that the heartless were taken care of for now, then fell down on the hard stone ground.

Mushu perched up on top of Xion's head, beaming with pride. "Man, I really did it! Did you see me out there breathing out that huge fireball, I gotta tell Mulan about this!"

"Hey, you aren't gonna take all the credit are you?"

"Oh...ahem.. we really did that! How's that sound uh..."

"Xion." She supplied.

"Right. Xion. How's that sound?"

She giggled. "That sounds fine. I have to admit, I was scared you were gonna screw up, but you really pulled your weight out there."

"I sure did!" With the last bit of her magic depleted, Mushu disappeared back into a cloud of smoke and a small pendant fell into her hand.

"Thanks," She said softly before placing it back into her pocket and swapping it out for an ether. "Now to get back to finding Axel."

Standing up, Xion dusted off the debris that collected on her cloak as well as the beads of sweat that accumulated on her forehead due to a mixture of both stress and the intense heat from the fire. She went through the opening and into a chamber with gaps outlooking the rest of the Underworld. In the middle was a deep green vault of what she assumed to be more acid that gave the chamber a chilling vibe.

"A dead end..." She muttered under her breath.

*tap

*tap

"But sounds like I'm not alone..." Xion ducked down and sure enough the same spider narrowly missed her. When she raised her back up, she saw Axel still hanging loosely in its jaws. "Axel!" Xion yelled.

Clenching the handle of her keyblade, she pointed the tip of the blade at the spider's head, she was shaking, but held still purely from her resolve to save Axel. A shard of ice blasted from her keyblade and hit the spider straight on, sticking its massive body to the wall.

With the time she had now that it was immovable, she jumped up onto the frozen spider, then pulled Axel out from its clutches. "AXEL!" She shook him back and forth until his eyes slowly opened up.

"Wha-Xion?" Axel said, still groggy.

"You ok, sleepy head," She replied.

"Heh, good one."

"Now come on, we have to get out of here!" Xion threw Axel's arm around her shoulder and she took off, landing harshly on the ground below.

"I got an idea." Axel mumbled. "Just set me down."

After setting Axel back down on the ground, he stumbled onto his feet. He stretched his arms out, his chakrama formed in his hands. "Let's heat things up 'round here!" The chamber was engulfed in bright orange flames, melting the ice off the spider.

The spider fell plummeted down like a rock into the vault of fire. There, it burned from what was once a terrifying monster to nothing, but grainy, black ash.

While the fire died down, Xion faced Axel, able to collect herself now that they were safe. "Axel...I was so worried about you. I'm sorry...I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. I was careless."

"No you weren't. I was weak...I'm always so, so weak...not anymore..." Her eyes lowered down to the ground with shame.

"I never thought I meant this much to you. Guess I'm not as much of a burden—"

Xion wrapped her arms around Axel and squeezed him as tight as she could. "Axel...shut up." She murmured. "You matter so much to me."

XxXX

**Day 154**

Xion summoned her keyblade, holding the handle firmly in her hand in an upward position so that the blade pointed to the ceiling. "And then I just do this-" An ice shard formed at the tip of the blade, it shot like a bullet from her keyblade and when it collided with the ceiling, it fractured into thousands of tiny ice shards. "Cool right? I learned it by myself too!"

Xigbar smirked. "Not bad, poppet, that'll do great against the heartless we're after. Hey, maybe I should start calling you ice queen from now on."

"Ice queen?" Xion frowned. "I don't see what's wrong with just Xion."

"It's for fun. You got a nickname for me?"

"Uh well, you probably won't like them...and I really shouldn't say it in this place."

Now it was Xigbar's turn to frown as he could already guess the type of nasty nicknames she conjured up. "Yep, ice queen sure does fit ya, alright, I think it's time we head out." Standing up from the couch, Xigbar approached Saïx who was busy typing away the latest missions for next week. After exchanging a few words, Xigbar returned shortly to Xion with a mission report paper in hand.

"Where to?" Xion asked.

"Hollow bastion. We got recon at Ansem's place." Xigbar ripped open a portal to the darkness, then the two nobodies stepped through.

OoO

From their own Castle of Nobodies, Xion and Xigbar walked in just outside the gates of Ansem's Castle; a towering structure consisting of magical contraptions and machines that comprised the castle. However, its architectural prowess was overshadowed by the state of total ruin it was in, covered in seeping black ink and infrastructure decayed.

Xigbar took a moment to study the castle, before muttering to himself, "This place sure hasn't held up,"

Turning to Xion next, Xigbar nudged her in the shoulder. "Someone's coming, let's let them handle this."

She nodded and followed Xigbar to a giant piece of debris, perfect for hiding. A couple minutes passed while they waited until they both heard the sound of heavy footsteps—like boots hitting the paved stone road. Son after, Cloud came running from over the horizon, his famed buster sword covered with a thin film of heartless remains.

"Oh, I remember him, that's the wannabe SOLDIER kid, perfect timing," Xigbar said.

Raising his sword, Cloud wasted no time in opening the gate by hand and opted instead to slash right through it. He then bolted through the main doors, disappearing into the castle. Xion and Xigbar tailed right behind him.

Upon entering the castle for the first time, they saw the first floor was a series of corridors. "What're we looking for exactly?" Xion asked.

"As much as we can find. We should try and find important places like the study or the lab."

"How would you know?"

"I used to work here when I was a human. I was Braig; Head of the castle guard, as handsome and rugged as they come!"

Xion rolled her eyes, then they turned a corner.

"...So do you ever miss being human?" Xion asked they were heading down a new hallway.

"Yeah a little bit, I especially miss having two eyes, but I only have my own self to blame for that. Besides, we'll all be human again soon enough."

"If you say so."

*CRASH

The wall suddenly blew out and heartless poured through the opening. "What a surprise," Xigbar remarked as he cocked his arrow gun. Xion did the same, her keyblade forming in her hand.

"What do we do?!" Xion yelled.

"We go! Come on!" They ran down the hall as more and more heartless filled in, when they were at a far enough distance Xigbar shot a round of arrows at the heartless, destroying a few, but barely putting a dent on the wave, though Xigbar didn't seem to mind.

"Now this is the cool part," Xigbar said.

Following his words, several purple spheres manifested in front of the areas where Xigbar shot his arrows. The heartless ran past the spheres without a second thought, but, once past the spheres, they appeared to be running in place, not getting any closer or farther to the two nobodies.

Grinning now, Xigbar twirled his two arrow guns in hand before joining them into one elaborate rifle. He reached into his pocket, grabbed at set of ammo, then loaded it in his rifle. With his arrow gun set and loaded, he shot again at the heartless, this time, having a more explosive impact.

When he was done and they were gone, Xigbar turned back to Xion, the reminisce of the heartless splattered on the walls and floor. "Ready to go?" He asked coolly.

Xion nodded slowly. "W-Wait, how did you do that?!"

"Oh that? My gimmick is space, I can bend it to my will. Now let's get the move on."

They continued down the hallway, soon reaching a low, open area, Xion was about to walk in, but Xigbar held her back and pulled her behind the corner. "That blonde kid's out there," Xigbar said.

"Right..."

Cloud paced around the room, looking through every nook and cranny, until he settled with leaning back on the wall. "Damn, Cid said the Orichalcum would be here, what gives? Not like it could've just got up and walked..." He paused mid sentence, then backed away from the wall.

While pulling his buster sword out, a large body heartless pulled itself from the wall and lunged towards Cloud. In one quick, devastating slash, two halves of the large body heartless lay dead on the floor. Still, there was more fighting to be done as three darkball heartless and two defender heartless crawled out from the depths of the shadows in hopes of ending Cloud.

"Well, here we go!"

Cloud stood steadfast, holding his sword upright, he then ran across the room and planted his feet on the wall. He pushed off of the wall and brought his blade down on the tougher looking defender heartless, the defender tried to stand steady like a statue by lodging its shield into the ground for extra support, but Cloud broke through the shield and slashed its body in half.

As Cloud hauled his blade back up, a dark ball heartless drove into his back, sending him flying forward. Another defender heartless at the end of the room, whacked its shield on Cloud's body and he slammed hard into the ground.

Not wanting this place to become his grave, he quickly used his buster sword to stand himself back up, then threw himself backwards, forcing him to abandon his sword.

 _'Shit...Now I know what it feels like to be Tifa. Looks like I'll have to go through with this.'_ Cloud cracked his neck and knuckles, ready for the defender heartless that was charging for him.

He swept his leg at the defender heartless, knocking it down. After that, he grabbed the darkball looming over his head by the tail and swung the heartless around like a ball and chain. When her he let go, it collided with the other darkball at the back of the room. causing both of them to splatter on the walls.

With all, but one heartless remaining, he made a run for his buster sword. Grabbing his sword by the handle, he flung it at the defender—still struggling on its back. The buster sword sliced the defender clean in half, then lodged itself into the back wall. Finally, he could go back to leaning on the wall in relative solitude.

He let out an exasperated sigh. _'...Don't know how much more fighting I can take. Maybe I should've brought one of them along, even if they would slow me down.'_

"—Damn, that boy's a fighter. Not bad," Xigbar said under his breath.

"Y-Yeah."

After a while, Cloud got his sword and continued ahead on his way. Now that he was gone, Xion and Xigbar let themselves into the low area.

"Let's give him some time before we follow after him," Xigbar said, seeing Xion edging near the hallway Cloud entered.

"Sure." Xion answered, though her mind was on other things. 'He said he was looking for an Orichalcum, wonder what that is. If he's willing to come all the way in order into here, it must be important.'

"Hey poppet something the matter?"

"Not really, I was just thinking about what that guy said...about the Orichalcum. What is it anyways?"

"It's an incredibly valuable material used to power machines and build structures. It's scattered all throughout the worlds, but especially in Hollow bastion, if you catch my drift," Xigbar explained.

"I do. From the sounds of it, Hollow Bastion used to be a pretty important place."

"You're catching on fa—"

"—OUTTA MY WAY!" Yelled a familiar voice (unfortunately).

Xion and Xigbar jumped out of the way, Pete ran in, hit his head on the wall, then swiftly turned back to the two nobodies with a snarl on his face. "What's the big idea manuverin' like that!" He grumbled.

"Pete?! What're you doing here!" Xion exclaimed.

"Why should I be answerin' to be a pipsqueak like you?"

Xion summoned her keyblade and pointed it at Pete. "Because you're gonna be sorry if you don't!"

"Fine-fine! Geez, I'm just here to get my hands on that Orichalcum I heard that spiky haired freak talkin' 'bout so Maleficent won't hafta—" He slapped his meaty hand over his gaping mouth. "Forget I said that last part!"

"Boy, Maleficent hires anyone these days. So Pete, you got any idea on the in's and out's of the castle, looks like you snoop around here a lot," Xigbar said.

"And if I did, why would I tell ya's?"

"No idea. I just think you like having arms, that's all."

"Oooh, a threat I see. Well if you try anything on me, I'll send my heartless after you chumps!"

"Your heartless, huh? My dusks are game."

"Guys-guys! Let's not have an arms race in this cramped up place." Xion interjected. "Listen Pete, since you don't know anything about this castle, you can get out of our way now."

"Now who the hell said I ain't know nothin' about this place!"

"Yeah right. As if an idiot like you knows anything, I bet you can't even tell your left from your right!"

"Why you-I know every single inch of this place like the back of my hand!"

"Oh yeah? So where's Ansem's study, HUH?!"

"Down this hall, first room to the left! How's that for ya!"

Xion winked at Pete. "Thanks for the help!"

"GRRRR YOU LITTLE...wait...they're gone! Dang it!"

OoO

"What a little sneak you are," Xigbar said as the two ran down the hallway.

"I get it from you. Now down this way!"

They turned their last corner and went through a door where sure enough, they found Ansem's study; a round room with a large bookcase that circled around, in the center was a desk, messy from the disarray of papers scattered across the surface. What was surprising, however, was despite being in the heart of heartless territory, it remained untouched.

"Just like how I remember it..." Xigbar said, strolling around the room.

Xion, meanwhile, grabbed as many papers as she could off the desk. "We gotta bring these back to the boss."

"Sure thing." He picked up his share of documents. "Let's head out. I'd call this one successful mission."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bloopers
> 
> Xion: What's soldier anyways?
> 
> Xigbar: Huh?
> 
> Xion: You said the blonde kid was in this organization called soldier
> 
> Xigbar: Never heard of it, but I have heard of SOLDIER
> 
> Xion: But I just said soldier
> 
> Xigbar: As if...what is that?
> 
> Xion: *sighing* ...but i just said SOLDIER
> 
> Xigbar: Oh yeah, SOLDIER, what about it?
> 
> Xion: dfkhfksd


End file.
